■..^v . 






'- 


"^9' 




IS 




4 
« 

A 


.^'^- 


^ 




<^' 


**' 




» 


■>- 


J,* 




'■j ' 


O 


V 


, 


i" 


,i3 o 


^° 


'^'^^. 


- 




> ** 
















"' 


^^,<^^ 


vP<b- 






1 I 


sr*^. 










^,9^-^ 




^ 



' ' •> ■ft'' -i^ ' " " 



4^ • fe 



<^' 



" o ^ <*> . 






^ V-^-^ 



A 



^ 






0^ 




">/> 9'' : ^: 



A < 






.0- 



■;-^' 



^ 






A 



^. 



HO. 






'b V 






>^^ 









^^-^^^ 



;> 



















•^ 



0- "^^ 



"^-^^ 



.-^ 






vP S ' ■ '■ " -' ■ '/; ^ 



/■ ^^^\ 



^. 



A 

<y Off; 



-p 






.^ 



Hq. 



.*'\ 






^ > 



<. 













V 






<<» 



^ o"-. ^''^^ ■■■ 0^" .- 






-p. ^ ^^' ^ 






\^ 



^0 



I . "f • o. 



>*., 












,0- 



\ . ^;^- ..'^^ 






A' 






"-..<^ 

^^'\ 












C, vX' 









A 



.'y 




^\ 



\V 



^:;. 






.0' 



-v^''^^ 



o V 



.^^ 









^"'V-^ •- 




-'■rf- 


t.^ 














"^^ 

"<"\ 








G^ / ./r-;v . 


■*^o-«' : '- '^ot-'*^ 




o< 


■" ■ :' .^°"^. 


.^■^ 


°<. 


"} 



,r 



^ *i^?0'^' ■ 



v 



-^<^' 

■"^^V 



^^ ^.^ ^x 



A 






v^ 

<^^: 



^^ 



^J^ S' 



'^. V^^'^i^^" '^'^ 



•e. 



■^o 



'^0' 

-! o. 









^ r. * 



.H^: ^ov: 



^^ 






,4° 



Viv 












''<Ua/-^^ a\- 







^ 






,>*^ 






.'^'' v/-.- 



, V.--. 



V 








'zy^'-^'^ ^^^^^^^a^ S^^ 



OHN.l^' 1-iALii 



THE STATUE 



JOHN P. HALE 



ERECTED IN FKONT OF THE CAPITOL 
AXD PRESENTED TO THE 



State of N^ew Hampshire 



WILLIAM E. OHAl^DLER 

OF CONCORD. 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE UNVEILING CEREMONIES ON 

AUGUST 3, 1892, 

WITH A REPORT OF THE ADDRESSES DELIVERED BY THE DONOR AND 

His Excellency Governor Hiram A. Tuttle, 

COUNCILLOR GEORGE A. RAMSDELL, CHAIRMAN, AND MESSRS. 

DANIEL HALL, GALUSHA A. GROW, GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AUGUSTUS WOODBURY, 

AMOS HADLEY, AND ALONZO H. QUINT. 



H. H- Gevi. ^our, C3w\. or, H^ie st'ay 



Ue. 



Published hy Direction of the Governor and Council. 



CONCORD, N. H.: 

REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION, RAILROAD SQUARE. 
1892 . 



THE HALE STATUE. 



The statue of Joiix Parker Hale, of Dover, 
'New Hampshire, now standing- in front of the eapi- 
tol at Concord, was tendered to the state by a let- 
ter, as follows : 

United States Senate, 

Washington, D. C, April 14, 1890. 
Tu tJie Grovernor and Council of the State of New Hampshire : 
Gentlemen : — I have the honor to state that I have 
made a contract for the erection of a statue of John P. 
Hale in the state house yard at Concord, which I hereby 
donate to the state of New Hampshire, and ask the accept- 
ance thereof. 

The statue will be of the same size as that of Daniel 
Webster, now in the state house yard, and will be east at 
the same bronze foundry in Munich after designs of Mr. F. 
Von Miller, artist and director of the bronze foundry. It 
is expected that the statue will be ready and in place for 
unveiling in the month of September, 1891. 

I have requested Col. Daniel Hall to present this com- 
munication. 

Respectfully, 

Wm. E. Chandler. 

On April 22 the offer was considered at a meet- 
ing, in Concord, of the governor and conncil ; pres- 



4 THE HALE STATUE. 

ent : Hon. David A. Taggart, president of the sen- 
ate, acting as governor, and Councillors Charles H. 
Horton, Edward C. Shirley, William S. Pillsbury, 
and Frank C. Churchill. 

On motion of Councillor Horton, — 

Voted, That the governor and council, in behalf 
of the state of JS^ew Hampshire, cordially and grate- 
fully accept the statue of John P. Hale, donated to 
the state by the Honorable AVilliam E. Chandler, 
and will reserve for it an eligible site in the state 
house yard, to be determined hereafter in confer- 
ence with Mr. Chandler or his representative. 

On ]S^ovember 6, 1890, a vote was adopted by the 
governor and council exactl}^ fixing the, site, as fol- 
lows : 

On motion of Councillor Pillsbury, it was voted 
to grant to Hon. William E. Chandler a plot of 
ground in the state house yard as a site for the 
statue of John P. Hale ; the plot to be in the front 
of the yard, next to Park street, north of the cen- 
tral walk, and occupying a position corresponding* 
to that granted for the erection of the Stark statue. 

There was delay in the completion of the statue 
until the summer of 1892. On the 28th day of 
June, at the suggestion of Senator Chandler, Coun- 
cillors George A. Pamsdell and Henry B. Quinby, 
with Secretary of State Ezra S. Stearns, were desig- 
nated by His Excellency Governor Hiram A. Tut- 
tle as a committee of arrangements to prepare for 
the unveiling and the acceptance of the statue ; and 
Col. Daniel Hall was designated and invited as 
orator of the occasion. 

The ceremonies took place on the third day of 



THE HALE STATUE. 5 

August, 1892. The final instrument of conveyance 
of the statue to the state is as follows : 

Concord, New Hampshire, August third, 1892. 
The bronze statue of John P. Hale, this day unveiled in 
the state house yard at Concord, and the granite pedestal 
and the bronze tablets thereon, are hereby given and con- 
veyed by me to the state of New Hampshire uncondition- 
ally and forever. 

William E. Chandler. 

The statue is of heroic size, standing eight feet 
and four inches above the die. It represents Sena- 
tor Hale as an orator, wearing an open frock coat, 
with a small roll in his pendant left hand, while the 
right arm and open hand and fingers are extended 
in an expressive gesture. The form and face make 
an excellent likeness, and the statue as a work of 
art has been commended by all observers. 

The pedestal is of Concord granite, cut by the 
IS'ew England Granite Works, of Concord. This 
rises nine feet and eight inches, maldng the whole 
monument eighteen feet high. The die is three 
feet and nine inches square, and rests on three 
bases : the first, eight feet square and fifteen inches 
thick ; the second, five and one half feet square and 
fourteen inches thick ; and the third, five feet square 
and twenty inches thick. 

The statue faces east. On the front of the ped- 
estal, in heavy raised letters cut in the granite, is 
the name, — 

JOHN P. HALE. 

On the three other sides are bronze tablets ; that 
on the north inscribed, — 



b THE HALE STATUE. 

JOHN P. HALE. 

FIRST ANTI-SLAVERY U. S. SENATOR. 

HE SECURED THE ABOLITION OF FLOGGING 

AND THE SPIRIT RATION IN THE NAVY. 

BORN AT ROCHESTER 1806. 

DIED AT DOVER 1873. 

The south tablet contains, from Mr. Hale's ^orth 
Church address of June 5, 1845, the sentence, — 

THE MEASURE OF MY AMBITION WILL BE 
FULL IF WHEN MY WIFE AND CHILDREN 
SHALL REPAIR TO MY GRAVE TO DROP 
THE TEAR OF AFFECTION TO MY MEMORY 
THEY MAY READ ON MY TOMBSTONE, 
HE WHO LIES BENEATH SURRENDERED 
OFFICE, PLACE AND POWER RATHER 
THAN BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP SLAVERY. 

On the rear are the words, — 

PRESENTED TO THE 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 

BY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER 

OF CONCORD. 

1892. 

The artist who designed and made the statue is 
Ferdinand Yon Miller, Junior, manager of the 
Royal Art Foundry at Munich in Bavaria, a sketch 
of whose life and works is given in this memorial 
volume. 

August third, 1892, the day of the unveiling 
ceremonies, was fair, and the attendance was unex- 
pectedly large, although no special invitations had 
been given. At half-past eleven o'clock a proces- 
sion left the Eagle Hotel, conducted by City Mar- 
shal Ct. Scott Locke, and headed by Governor Tut- 
tle and Councillor Ramsdell, who acted as chair- 
man of the proceedings. Besides those who took 
part in the exercises, there were present Mrs. John 



THE HALE STATUE. 



P. Hale, Mrs. William E. Chandler and John Par- 
ker Hale Chandler, Mr. and Mrs. William H. 
Jaqnes, Mr. and Mrs. William D. Chandler and 
their son Clark, and also ex-Governors ;N'athaniel 
S. Berry, of Bristol, James A. Weston, of Man- 
chester, Benjamin F. Prescott, of Epping, and 
David H. Goodell, of Antrim, and many state offi- 
cials and prominent citizens. 

From Rochester, Mr. Hale's birthplace, were 
present the following : 

Mayor Charles S. Whitehonse ; Conncilmcn Jo- 
seph Warren, William Flagg, George A. Bick- 
ford, Charles W. Allen, and George A. Bickford, 
Jr.; City Solicitor George E. Cochrane, Chief- 
Engineer Fire Department William C. Sanborn, 
and City Clerk Charles W. Brown. 

From Dover, Mr. Hale's home, came the follow- 
ing delegation : 

Henry R. Parker, Mayor; Eh Y. Brewster, 
Charles H. Horton, and Richard :N". Ross, ex- 
Mayors; Charles W. Smith, President of the Com- 
mon Conncil ; Herman W. Stevens, City Clerk; 
George H. Demeritt, Messenger ; William E. 
Whiteley, Clerk of Common Conncil; Joseph T. 
Woodbnry, George W. Xnte, Willard T. Sanborn, 
Daniel A. :N"ute, Charles E. Bnrnham, Charles 
Porter, Charles H. Foss, Albert G. ]^eal, John J. 
McCann, and John Killoren, Aldermen; John W. 
Merrow, Fred E. Qnhnby, John F. Stevens, Alfred 
R. Sayer, John A. Goodwin, Erastus A. Crawford, 
Charles L. Ricker, John W. Felch, Andrew P. 
Folsom, Charles F. Sawyer, Charles H. Morang, 
Peter Murphy, Patrick E. Mallon, and James 



THE HALE STATUE. 



Cassidy, Councilmen; "William F. IS'ason, City 
Solicitor; also Prof. Sylvester Waterhouse, Messrs. 
John Scales, Joshua L. Foster, Elisha R. Brown, 
Joseph S. Abbott, Oliver A. Gibbs, Joseph A. 
Peirce, Daniel H. Wendell, Charles H. Trickey, 
Eben C. Berry, William D. Taylor, Fred H. Foss, 
Theodore Woodman, Joseph Hayes, Samuel C. 
Fisher, William Sterns, Charles A. Faxon, George 
F. Morrill, John C. Tasker, Everett O. Foss, 
Charles Wood, and Mrs. Daniel Hall, Mrs. E. R. 
Brown, Mrs. A. H. Young, Mrs. Frank Hobbs, 
Mrs. James H. Wheeler, Miss Mary A. Hoitt, Miss 
Mary Woodman, Miss Susan Woodman, Miss Kate 
Adams, Miss C. Wood, and Mrs. Durgin. 

The exercises were conducted at the right of the 
statue upon a raised platform, which was in charge 
of Col. J, W. Robinson. During the hour preced- 
ing, a concert was given by the band of the Third 
Regiment, I^ew Hampshire IS^ational Guard, under 
the direction of Mr. Arthur F. Nevers. At the 
conclusion of the addresses, a collation was served 
by the state authorities at the Eagle Hotel, accom- 
panied by music from Blaisdell's orchestra. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 



At half-past eleven the assemblage was called to 
order by Councillor Ramsdell, the chairman, who, 
after music, said : 

It is our custom, upon the threshold of important 
occasions, to pause and recognize the Divine pres- 
ence. It is highly appropriate that we do so at this 
time. Let silence be observed while Rev. Dr. 
Quint invokes the blessing of Almighty God. 

Rev. Dr. Alonzo H. Quint then offered prayer ; 
after which followed the 

ADDRESS or COUXCILLOR GEORGE A. RA3ISDELL. 

Fellow Citizens : — On the 22d day of April, 
1890, Senator William E. Chandler communicated 
to the executive department his purpose to present 
to the state a statue of the late John Parker Hale. 
Governor David H. Goodell and his council made 
it a matter of record that the state would gladly 
accept the gift, and soon after set apart a portion 
of the state house yard for its reception. 

A month ago the senator made a second com- 
munication announcing the arrival of the statue 
from Europe, and his desire to present it to the 
state upon the third day of August, 1892. 



10 THE HALE STATUE. 

His Excellency Governor Tnttle at once ap- 
pointed a committee of the council with the secre- 
tary of state, to make arrangements for a proper 
ceremonial at the unveiling. In consultation with 
the governor and the donor, such arrangements 
have been made as seemed to befit the occasion, 
and we are assembled to uncover and take to the 
care of the state a statue of this noble son of New 
Hampshire 

[The speaker at this point recognized ex-Go v. 
]N^athaniel S. Berry, who had been escorted to the 
platform leaning upon the arm of ex-Senator James 
W. Patterson, and given a seat near the presiding 
officer.] 

It is an agreeable duty, easily performed, to wel- 
come this gathering of my fellow-citizens from all 
parts of the state. Nor is it less agreeable, or an 
office more difficult of execution, to extend a greet- 
ing to these distinguished men about me, repre- 
senting our own and other states, not a few of 
whom have received high honors at the hands of 
their fellow-men. But what shall I say to this aged 
man, for two years our war governor, who, bend- 
ing beneath the weight of fourscore and fifteen 
years, prompted by a great love, has come from his 
retirement to take part in the exercises of this day ? 
How shall I address this favorite of heaven ? 'No 
words of mine can express the thought which I see 
pictured in the faces of all within sound of my 
voice. But, as my eyes [turning to the statue of 
Webster] rest upon those lips of bronze, I am 
moved to say, — " Venerable man : you have come 
down to us from a former o;eneration. Providence 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 11 

hath bountifully lengthened out your life, that you 
might behold this glorious occasion." 

Resuming my theme : We have come together to 
uncover and take to the care of the state a statue 
of this noble son of 'New Hampshire, whose com- 
manding presence, liberal culture, stirring elo- 
quence, and, more than all, ivhose dauntless moral 
courage made him such a mighty factor in the 
formation of that public sentiment which made it 
possible for this nation in God's own time to throw 
off the institution of slavery which had come down 
to us, an almost fatal legacy, from an earlier gen- 
eration and a ruder civilization. 

The number of memorials of this character be- 
longing to the state is small. They can be enu- 
merated in a few moments, and upon the fingers of 
one hand. 

Forty years ago, in recognition of his great ser- 
vice in the early history of our national existence, 
there was erected by the state, in the town of 
Hampton Falls, upon our limited sea coast, a mar- 
ble shaft to the memory of Mesheck Weare, who, 
during the stormy years from 1776 to 1785, was at 
the head of civil affairs in ^ew Hampshire. 

One third of a century after this work was done 
and when it seemed that no more names, illustrious 
in our history before the Civil War, were to be per- 
petuated in bronze and stone, a distinguished citi- 
zen of Massachusetts, always loyal to the place of 
his birth, presented to the state that statue of Dan- 
iel Webster, whose peerless intellect and patriotic 
statesmanship have given our small commonwealth 
a name throughout the world. 



12 THE HALE STATUE. 

Yonder statue of Stark has been but recently 
placed upon its foundation by the state, in obedi- 
ence to a popular demand that our most prominent 
figure in the War of the Revolution, — the man who, 
in that great contest, with no authority but the 
commission of the state of 'New Hampshire in his 
jjocket, and (may I not say it) with few men be- 
hind him save the citizen soldiers of our state, 
fought a decisive battle, — should have, in addition 
to his great fame already secured, all the immortal- 
ity that bronze and granite can give. 

There is, at Thornton's Ferry, upon a lot and 
foundation furnished by the town of Merrimack, a 
substantial granite monument awaiting dedication, 
placed there by the state in memory of the distin- 
guished services of Matthew Thornton, illustrious 
not only as one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, but also as a co-worker with Weare 
and others — a galaxy of noble men — in laying the 
foundations of our state government. 

The last legislature made an appropriation to 
assist the towns of Peterborough and Temple in 
building a highway and establishing a public park 
upon a mountain rising majestically upon their 
borders and overlooking, like some giant sentinel, 
upon one hand, the place of the birth of General 
James Miller, and on the other, the place of his de- 
cease, to the end that the memory of this rugged 
old soldier, so creditable to our state, perish not 
from the minds of men so long as these evidences 
of man's work upon that granite mountain shall 
endure. 

The list is not long : Weare, Webster, Stark, 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 1^ 

Thornton, Miller ; bnt, God willing, another name 
shall be added before the snn goes down. 

The statne will now be nnveiled by John Parker 
Hale Chandler, a son of the donor and grandson of 
the senator to whose memory it is erected. 

At twelve o'clock Master John Parker Hale 
Chandler, a boy of seven years, pulled the cord 
which lowered the United States flag which had 
covered the statne, and the unveiling was accom- 
plished amid cheers from the assembly and music 
from the band. 

The chairman then said : 

Senator Chandler, have you at this time any 
communication to make to the state, represented 
by His Excellency Governor Tuttle ? 

SEISTATOR WILLIAM E. CHAJS^DLER'S ADDRESS OF 
PEESENTATIOX. 

Mr. Chairman:— John P. Hale was three times 
elected United States senator from :N"ew Hamp- 
shire by legislatures sitting in the capitol edifice 
within the precincts where we to-day assemble. 
The statue here erected and now exhibited to view 
I have thought might not inappropriately be pre- 
sented by me to the state of ISTew Hampshire and 
the city of Concord, for I was born in yonder house, 
the nearest to the capitol ; have been twice here 
chosen senator, succeeding to the term forty years 
after Mr. Hale's first election ; and, moreover, am 
able to rejoice in my relation to that child of prom- 
ise, who, as the only male descendant of Mr. Hale 



14 THE HALE STATUE. 

and bearing his name, has this day fittingly un- 
veiled the statue of his grandfather. 

Governor Tattle, to the state of 'New Hampshire, 
through your excellency, I now tender, by a jDroper 
writing of conveyance, this statue of one of New 
Hampshire's foremost sons. 

As a work of art, it cannot, I think, Ije justly 
criticised ; and, as a likeness in face and form, 
it must be received as being as good as could 
be expected in a design made from photographs 
never fully satisfactory to the family or friends. 

It is a high pleasure to me to give the statue to 
my native state and city as an evidence of the 
strong aftection which I bear to my home and of 
my appreciation of the kindnesses and honors 
which its citizens have so lavishly bestowed upon 
me. 

Statues of the illustrious dead and memorial 
arches and monuments are principally valuable for 
the lessons which they teach to new generations. 

No inculcation has sprung from any life more 
noble than the one inspired by Mr. Hale's career : 
That there can be no higher aim in life than to 
espouse a humane and holy cause in the hour of its 
gloom and despondency, and to devote one's self 
constantly and fearlessly to its service. 

Gifted Avith pleasing form, feature, and voice, 
receiving an excellent collegiate and professional 
education, and achieving success as a lawyer, at 
an early age he became the favorite orator of his 
political party, an associate and friend of Franklin 
Pierce, its greatest leader in the state, and Avas 
elected a representative in congress. But when he 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 



15 



was called upon to support the forcible annexation 
of Texas and an unjust war with Mexico, in order 
to extend the domain of human chattel slaveiy, and 
to bring more slave states into the Union, he re- 
belled and wrote his famous Texas letter, for which 
he was expelled from his party and debarred from 
congress ; and his now historic proclamation of 
resistance was the beginning of the political anti- 
slavery movement in Xew Hampshire. 

The conflict ui3on which he then entered aroused 
the best elements of his noble nature, and enlisted 
every energy of his soul from 184:5, when the 
struggle began, down to 1865, when every slave 
was free and liberty was universal in America. 

The idolized poet of our Merrimack valley (who, 
in thought and word and sympathy, is with us 
here to-day) greeted the beginning with his earn- 
est benediction and thrilHng exhortation : 

God bless New Hampshire ; from her Granite peaks 
Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks. 



Courage, then, Northern hearts. Be linn ; be true. 
What one brave state hath done, can ye not also do .'' 

And, when the full fruition came, how gratefully 
he praised God in a joyous song of freedom : 

It is done. 
Clang of bell and roar of gun 
Send the tidings up and down. 

****** 

Fling the joy from town to towii. 

****** 



16 THE HALE STATUE. 

On morning's wing 
Send the song of praise aln-oad. 
With a sound of broken chains, 
Tell the nations that He reigns, 
Who alone is Lord and God. 

Once engaged in Freedom's battle, Mr. Hale's 
hostility to every form of hnman debasement be- 
came intense, and his reverence for humanity, his 
respect for man made in the image of his Creator, 
became the absorbing and controlling principle of 
his existence. 

It was alike abhorrent to him that black men, 
women, and children should be sold as chattels 
upon the auction-block, under national laws, and 
that the sailors of the republic should, by national 
direction, become besotted by alcoholic drams, and 
be flogged with brutal whips. To contend against 
the enslavement or degradation of either the bodies 
or the souls of human beings of any race, color, or 
condition, was the deliberate mission of his life. 

When he began he laid doAvn ofiice, place, and 
power to fight in a doubtful and almost hopeless 
struggle. Before he finished he saw his great 
works brought to complete success, the paramount 
desires of his heart fully gratified, and himself 
crowned as well with honors as with length of 
days. 

]N"o more inspiriting example can be studied by 
the ingenuous youth of ^ew Hampshire than the 
life of hiui whose statue rises before us. 

Indeed, the spot Avhereon we stand abounds in 
inspiring suggestions. 

John Stark was ^ew Hampshire's most re- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES, 17 

nowned soldier in the Revolution. Most fortunate 
as well as most valiant of warriors, he saved the 
rear at Bunker Hill, routed the British army at 
Bennington, and led the van in Washington's criti- 
cal movement upon Trenton. 

Daniel Webstet", with his massive intellect, his 
profound comprehension of the principles of the 
constitution and the Union, and his intense patriot- 
ism, ^ew Hampshire gave to the nation as her 
greatest statesman and orator. 

The 'New Hampshire soldiers in the War of the 
Rebellion, to whom yonder beautiful arch is dedi- 
cated, gave their best service and, many of them, 
their lives in battle, to preserve the union of these 
states. 

The memory of these heroes and patriots is 
gratefully perpetuated by all these permanent mon- 
uments. 

To these tributes to the distinguished dead to- 
day is added the statue of another son of New 
Hampshire — 

A citizen of public spirit and high character ; an 
orator of surpassing pathos and power ; a fervid 
champion of the oppressed and the enslaved ; an 
inspired apostle of human liberty ; and a conscien- 
tious statesman of j^urity and patriotism. 

He was well worthy of commemoration in this 
enduring form ; and his character and life should 
be comprehended and imitated by the present and 
every future generation in the state he loved and 
served. 



18 THE HALE STATUE. 

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE BY HIS EXCELLENCY 
GOVERNOR HIRAM A. TUTTLE. 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : — In the 
mighty struggle that preceded the destruction of 
the accursed system of American slavery, 'Ne^Y 
Hampshire played an important and influential 
part. When the able Southern leader attacked 
the federal constitution, it was 'New Hampshire's 
greatest son Avho made answer, declaring doctrines 
and principles that have never since been success- 
fully assailed. In that great contest other sons of 
ISTew Ham])shire occupied an honorable and con- 
spicuous position. Chase, Greeley, Fessenden, 
Pillsbury, and others that might be named, man- 
fully contended for the principles of liberty and 
equality, and dealt mighty l^lows against the insti- 
tution of slaver}' ; but, among them all, one man 
stood out preeminent as the leader of the anti-slav- 
ery host. That man was John Parker Hale ; a 
statue to whose memory, through the liberality of 
one of ISTew Hampshire's leading citizens and pub- 
lic men, — Senator William E. Chandler, — is this 
day unveiled and dedicated. 

In behalf of the state of ;N"ew Hampshire, I 
accept this statue, which will stand here to remind 
the people of our state of the great and good man 
whose fame and achievements it is designed to 
commemorate. Beautiful and enduring, it may 
insjoire to more vigorous and virtuous actions, in 
his mature time, the graceful child, in whom are 
united the names. Hale and Chandler, and in 
whose veins courses the blood of both. 



UNVEtLING CEREMONIES. 19 

It is well thus to signalize our appreciation of 
the virtues and accomplishments of men who, like 
John P. Hale, have brought credit and renown 
to the state of their birth ; and, as the immortal 
Webster and the heroic Stark are already here in 
bronze, it is fitting that the eloquent and fearless 
Hale should also be thus immortalized. 

l^ew Hampshire has produced many great men, 
— a galaxy of brilliant jurists, able soldiers, and 
consummate statesmen, — but among them all John 
P. Hale stands out a conspicuous and grand figure. 
Born in the early days of the nineteenth century, 
Mr. Hale reached the maturity of his powers at the 
time when the great question of anti-slavery was 
agitating the people of the N^orth, and into that 
contest he threw the mighty force of his intellect 
and the magnificent powers of his convictions and 
his purjDOse. Loving freedom, hating oppression, 
a true patriot, he entered into the thick of the 
fight, and never flinched, however hot the battle 
became. ^^To matter what the odds were against 
him, he fought as man can only fight when ani- 
mated by moral convictions and strengthened and 
upheld by moral forces. 

At every step in his career he opposed slavery 
and the extension of slave territory, including the 
annexation of Texas. He made no comjjromises 
with wrong, — no pledges nor promises that he 
could not honorably keep. The associate and 
friend of Franklin Pierce in early life, he broke 
away from the great Democratic leader when Free- 
dom called him to do battle against oppression. 
The associate of Chase and Sumner in the senate 



20 THE HALE STATUE. 

of the United States, he was the peer of these great 
men, and together they held aloft, in the days that 
tried men's souls, the flag of equality and human 
rights. 

He lived to see the triumph of the cause for 
which he battled so long; the abolition of slavery, 
the very name of which he hated ; the defeat of the 
slaveholders' rebellion, and the reconstruction of 
the Union upon the firm and abiding foundations 
of liberty and justice. His career was one of 
unflinching integrity, of honorable ambitions, and 
magnificent achievements . 

It is fitting that such a man should be commem- 
orated in granite and bronze. It is fitting that 
such a man, whose life-work shed so much lustre 
upon New Hampshire, should be thus honored. 
His virtues and deeds are already enshrined in the 
hearts and afl'ections of the people of the state, but 
it is well that this beautiful statue should be erected 
hei'e as an object lesson to the youth of !New Hamp- 
shire, pointing them, not only to the grandeur of 
this man's life, but also reminding them of the ])0S- 
sibilities that lie in the path of those who value 
integrity; who love the truth, and whose steps are 
guided by the unfailing light of a mighty principle 
and an indomitable purpose. 

Mk. CHAiRMA:Nr : In the name of, and as the 
servant of, the great state of 'New Hampshire, I 
accept this statue; and, as the chief executive, I 
fervently invoke the renewed devotion of our peo- 
ple to the great doctrines and principles that John 
P. Hale advocated and defended with such marvel- 
ous ability and matchless eloquence. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 21 



His tongue has long been mute, but the words 
he spoke in life and the heroic grandeur of his 
character should ever be an incentive and inspira- 
tion to noble aims and lofty deeds on the part of 
all who appreciate and honor the highest type of 
Auierican manhood. 

The Chairman^: — We are fortunate in having, 
as the principal speaker of the occasion, one who, 
from his own boyhood to the day of the decease of 
Mr. Hale, loiew him, admired him, and loved him ; 
one who can speak out of a full heart. I present 
our fellow-citizen, Hon. Daniel Hall, of Dover, as 
the orator of the day. 

V 

COL. hall's ORATION^. 

Mr. Preslde^t an^d Fellow Citizens : When 
the illusions of military glory, and the delirious 
dream of a universal supremacy, had given way to 
the sober reflections of the philosopher and states- 
man, the august exile of 8t. Helena said: "I 
wanted no statues, for I knew that there was no 
safety in receiving them at any other hands than 
those of posterity." In a like spirit, Burke also 
deprecated a statue in his life-time, saying that 
such honors belong exclusively to the tomb, and 
that, frequently, such is human inconstancy, the 
same hands which erect pull them down. Thus 
these great men, both with characteristic penetra- 
tion and discernment, touched upon the profound 
truth that every man's work is to be tested by 
time. That is the crucible through which all ser- 



22 THE HALE STATUE. 

vice is to be passed before it receives its final stamp 
and anthentication. But time is a factor whose 
relations to histoiy are readjusted. What required 
an age in an earlier day is now accomplished in a 
generation, by the diffusion of knowledge, the 
rapid circulation of intelligence, the electric rapid- 
ity of all the interchanges of thought and sentiment. 
Men do not wait for ages to be appreciated. By 
these modern instruments of precision, in the quick- 
ening of human sympathies, and the broadening of 
intellectual horizons, we measure the mental and 
moral altitude of our great actors, and determine 
their places in the firmament with unerring accu- 
racy, after only that brief lapse of time which suf- 
fices for the subsidence of the passions and pertur- 
bations of contemporary judgment. And so, before 
a generation has passed since a great man was 
gathered to his rest, the people of his state meet, 
in unbroken accord, to do him honor by raising 
here a statue to his memory in the public grounds 
of the commonwealth, under the shadow of its capi- 
tol, whose arches have so often resounded with the 
echoes of his eloquence. 

On the 31st day of March, 1806, :N'ew Hamp- 
shire was enriched with one of those rare gifts, 
which, bestowed upon her in unusual plenitude, 
have given her a distinction beyond most other 
states, as the mother of great men. On that day 
JoELisr Parker Hale was born in Rochester, of a 
father bearing the same name, a lawyer of brilliant 
promise, and a mother who was the daughter of 
William O'Brien, an Irish exile, who distinguished 
himself by the daring feat of capturing the first 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 23 

armed British vessel in the War of the Revolu- 
tion and died a prisoner of war at the early age of 
twenty-three. He was of the heroic stock which 
gave birth to William Smith O'Brien. It is hardly 
more than idle speculation to fancy that we always 
find in race or pedigree the source of special traits 
in a great character ; but those who are curious to 
trace the characteristics of genius back to ances- 
tral blood, have readily found Mr. Hale's practical 
turn of mind, sound sense, coolness and phlegm in 
his sturdy Anglo-Saxon father, and the wit and 
humor, warmth and rhetorical fervor which marked 
his speech and temperament, in his mother's Celtic 
ancestors. Mr. Hale's father died in 1819 at the 
early age of forty-four, leaving an honorable name, 
but to his mother little of this world's goods where- 
with to care for a numerous family of children, of 
whom Mr. Hale was the second, and but thirteen 
years of age. But she was equal to the duty 
imposed upon her. She nurtured her brood with 
singular care and industry, and had the satisfaction 
of living to see her son enter upon a career of 
assured professional success, and also into the 
political life which was afterwards so distinguished. 
She died in 1832 at the age of fifty-two years. 
Through all his life Mr Hale loved and honored 
this noble mother with a rare devotion, serving her 
with a knightly loyalty in his youth, and in his da3^s 
of renown, when he was an illustrious United States 
senator and the peer of any living American, he 
made a most touching allusion to her in the debate 
upon Gen. Cass's resolution of sympathy with the 
exiled Irish patriots. Said he, "Sir, my mother, 



24 THE HALE STATUE. 

many years dead, was the only child of an Irish 
exile. His name was O'Brien, and I should feel, 
if in this place, or in any place, whenever or wher- 
ever a word of sympathy is to be expressed for an 
Irish exile and an O'Brien, that I should be false 
to every pulsation of my heart, to every drop of 
blood that flows in these veins, and to that which 
no man can be false to, a deceased mother, if I did 
not express it. ^o, sir, let whatever consequences, 
personal or political, stand in the way, so long as 
the blood of my mother flows in my veins, and so 
long as I remember who I am, and what I am, 
whatever words of sympathy, of counsel, or of 
encouragement an Irish exile can have, that he shall 
have from me." 

But few of the contemporaries of Mr. Hale's 
youth survive, and it is diflicult to present any 
but an imperfect record of the circumstances amid 
which he reached maturity, the processes by which 
he was prepared for his destined work, and the 
forces which determined the course and complex- 
ion of his career. But it is certain that he was a 
bright, active, quick, witty, kind, generous, cour- 
ageous, and helpful boy. His mother's exertions 
kept him at school, and he was enabled at an early 
age to get a term or two of preparatory study at 
Exeter under Principal Abbot, who boasted some 
years after that he had five of his boys in the 
United States senate, " and pretty good boys, 
too," — Webster, Cass, Hale, Dix, and Felch. He 
entered Bowdoin college in 1823, and Avas there a 
contemporary and friend of Franklin Pierce, 
IS^athaniel Hawthorne, and other distinguished 



"UNVEILING CEREMONIES, 25 

men. He was graduated there in 1827, with a 
high reputation for general abihty and off-hand 
oratorical power. He read law at Rochester and 
at Dover, where he finished his legal studies under 
the tuition of the late Daniel M. Christie, for many 
years the honored head of the IS^ew Hampshire 
bar. As a law student he displayed all his char- 
acteristic traits of quicloiess, aptitude, ease of 
acquisition, and tenacity of memory ; so that both 
his instructors, Mr. Woodman and Mr. Christie, 
formed the highest hopes of him, and confidently 
predicted his future eminence. To all who knew 
him it was evident that he was fitted to play a 
great part in the world, and was the possessor of 
powers of which his country had a right to demand 
an account. From his earliest youth he manifested 
the activit}^ of his intellect, and read with interest 
the classics of our literature, and especially the 
great orators of ancient and modern times. Admit- 
ted to the bar and opening an ofiice at Dover in 
1830, he at once took high rank in the profession. 
His entrance into practice realized the highest 
hopes of his friends ; he soon gained a large client- 
age, and within a few years became known as one 
of the most astute lawyers and eloquent advocates 
at the 'New Hampshire bar. He had consummate 
skill and tact in handling witnesses, rare keenness in 
discerning the points at issue and adroitness in 
meeting them, and extraordinary power before 
jimes in both criminal and civil cases. In the ear- 
lier years of his practice he was often the leading 
counsel against Mr. Christie and others not less 
distinguished, and his appeals to the jury gave full 



26 THE HALE STATUE. 

scope to his unrivalled wit and bnmor, his indigna- 
tion against wrong, and pathos in defence of the 
rights of humanity. 

As a lawyer, Mr. Hale from the outset mani- 
fested the democratic tendencies of his mind and 
character. He believed in the people, and was 
jealous of every encroachment upon popular rights. 
Before his entrance upon the national arena he 
made a stand in the supreme court of 'New Hauip- 
shire for the right of the jury to be judges of the 
law as well as the facts in criminal cases, and had a 
warm controversy on the subject with the late 
Chief-Justice Joel Parker. He published a pam- 
phlet on the question which was a remarkable pro- 
duction, showing great research and polemical 
skill, and it is scarcely extravagant to style it a 
monument to his acquirements as a lawyer. It 
contains well-nigh all the learning on a question of 
the deepest importance in its day, which has been 
substantially settled at last by the ameliorations of 
the criminal law, the progress of society, and the 
groAvth of the institutions of liberty. Although 
Mr. Hale was not distinguished for recondite learn- 
ing, this publication exhibited too complete a 
mastery of authorities to be dashed off at a sitting, 
too profound an argument to have been prepared 
in a day. This debate is chiefly interesting today 
as proof that Mr. Hale had unquestionably devoted 
time in his early years to the study of the great 
l)ooks of the common law, to the history and 
development of English liberty, and was deeply 
grounded in its leading principles. Judge Parker 
replied through the New Hampshire Reports in 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 2T 

Peirce et al. v. State, 13 ]^. H. 536. An examina- 
tion of these reports from Yol. 6 to 17, inclusive, 
will show the extent and importance of Mr. Hale's 
law practice, and that he had every prospect of a 
great legal career. 

Mr. Hale exhibited an early bias towards poli- 
tics and the consideration of public affairs. With 
his ardent nature, popular sympathies, and devo- 
tion to free principles, it is not strange that he had 
embraced the doctrines of that democracy which 
was then in the ascendant in the young republic 
In 1832 he was elected to the legislature on a 
working-man's ticket, an incident thus early indica- 
tive of his sympathetic relation with humanity, and 
a presage of his future career as a champion of 
popular rights. He soon after became fully iden- 
tified with the Democratic party, and in 1834, 
when only twenty-eight years of age, he was ap- 
pointed by President Jackson United States dis- 
trict attorney, which position he held with distinc- 
tion till he was removed for political reasons by 
the Whig administration in 1841. During this 
time Mr. Hale had developed very rapidly as a 
lawyer and orator, and in 1843 he was nominated 
for congress by the Democratic party, and elected 
on a general ticket with Edmund Burke, John R. 
Peding, and Moses IsTorris. 

It was the fortune of Mr. Hale to come upon the 
stage of action at a time of intellectual and moral 
ferment in IS ew England, — a time of daring spec- 
ulations, when enthusiasms were aroused, and so- 
ciety, though not recreated by transcendentalism 
and other more or less Utopian schemes, yet re- 



28 THE HALE 8TATUE. 

ceived a mighty uplifting, which gave free scope 
to the most adventm-ons thought and phihmthropy. 
His youth and early manhood were coincident with 
this period of moral and intellectual upheaval and 
awakening on all subjects ; and if such a man, l3y 
virtue of his environment and the indifference of 
the public sentiment in which he was reared, was 
as yet callous to the wrong and the danger of 
American slavery, it was clear he could not so 
remain. It is impossible to conceive that a mind 
so comprehensive, a nature so fine and humane, a 
temper so bold, a courage so superb and complete, 
should not be arrested by a portent so terrible then 
rising into domination of the republic, and against 
which every generous aspiration of l^ew England 
was rising in insurrection. Since, by his own con- 
fession, he had encouraged a rude interruption of 
an anti-slavery meeting in Dover in 1835, a perse- 
cution of abolitionists in which he said he thought 
he was doing God service, as Paul did before his 
conversion in persecuting the Christians, Mr. Hale 
had been a watchful observer of the course of 
events and ideas, and when he was elected to con- 
gress in 1843, it was known that he would vote for 
the abrogation of the twenty-first rule, whereby 
congress, at the dictation of the slave power, con- 
temptuously refused to receive anti-slavery peti- 
tions. He had avoAved this purpose, and was 
elected with that understanding ; and when the 
question came forward in that congress, he, Avith 
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, came to the support of 
Mr. Adams, and valiantly fought to abrogate the 
rule. The attempt was not then successful, but at 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 29 

the next session the "old man eloquent" burst 
through the gag rule in triumph. 

The slavery of the negro race in the United 
States is one of the crudest and bloodiest passages 
in human history. In the same year that the May- 
jioiver crossed the ocean, bearing to the western 
continent the Pilgrim fathers, another ship buffeted 
the same sea, brought with her a cargo of nineteen 
slaves, and landed them at Jamestown in Virginia. 
That was the fatal seed of American slavery, the 
upas tree which struck deep its poisonous root, and 
threatened so long to overshadow the whole land. 
Mr. Sumner well said that in the hold of these two 
ships were concealed the germs of the War of the 
Kebellion. As time passed on, negroes were forced 
into the country by British greed, and the system 
made its way into all the colonies. But the con- 
science of Puritanism never gave up its antagonism 
to the idea that "man could hold property in man," 
and in time the ]^ew England colonies one by one 
sloughed it off. 

During the War of Independence, however, 
nearly all the colonies held slaves, though the sys- 
tem was far stronger in the South than in the 
!N^orth. But the Revolutionary struggle itself 
gave rise to certain phrases since called " glittering 
generalities of natural right," which in themselves 
were held to bar a continuance of the institution. 
Before the adoption of the constitution a majority 
of the states had inhibited the further introduction 
of slaves, and almost everywhere, notably in Vir- 
ginia under the influence of Jefierson and Madison, 
the current of opinion and of political action was 



30 THE HALE STATUE. 

against slavery. That it was considered a mere 
temporary condition by our fathers, to be very 
soon eliminated and cast off, is beyond question. 
It was the fortune of Mr. Hale to demonstrate that 
on repeated occasions in his political life. The 
views of the makers of the constitution are clearly 
shoAvn by the great ordinance of 1787, passed by 
the congress of the confederation, which dedicated 
the Northwest to freedom forever by these immor- 
tal words: "There shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in the said territory, other- 
wise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted." 

Then came the constitution itself, in which the 
founders would acknowledge the existence of 
slavery in the Union by an euphemism only, by 
the prohibition of the slave trade after 1808, and 
by guaranties looking to the ultimate extinction of 
the system itself. One of the first acts of congress 
under the constitution was to reenact the ordinance 
of Jefferson and Dane by extending its provisions 
to new territory ceded to the Union. But now, 
soon after the constitution was formed, these strong 
tendencies towards emancipation and the restriction 
of slavery began to be reversed. In the Union as 
first formed, only a small portion, a little strip on 
the southern Atlantic slope, was adapted to the 
tropical productions of rice and cotton. But now 
the Anglo-Saxon " hunger for the horizon " began 
to operate. The retrocession of Louisiana to France 
in 1800, and its purchase b}^ the United States from 
]N'apoleon in 1803, and the purchase of Florida from 
Spain in 1819, threw open a vast acreage of new 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 31 

lands, with a deep and fei'tile soil, under a burning- 
sun, fitted superbly for the growth of cotton and 
the sugar cane under conditions to which the Cau- 
casian constitution was not adapted. But the most 
potent factor was the simple invention of the cot- 
ton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, which, concur- 
ring with other mechanical inventions of this time, 
changed the whole aspect of the slavery question 
in the cotton growing states. 

Previous to 1790 no cotton had been exported 
from America. These events stimulated the culti- 
vation of cotton, opened for it a foreign market, 
enhanced the commercial value of the slave, and 
tightened his chains. It is noteworthy how the 
excess of land in the extreme South fitted into the 
excess of labor in the border states, and gave to 
both a common and recijDrocal interest in •■' the pe- 
culiar institution." The Louisiana purchase added 
more land to the Union than we already had. This 
acquisition of territory thus developed the inter- 
state slave trade, and Virginia became the breed- 
ing ground of a race of chattel laborers, whose 
wrongs were depicted in such lurid colors and with 
such lightning strokes of genius in Uncle Tom's 
Cabin. Thus the institution became an iniquitous 
and guilty traffic, so far out-heroding any former 
system of helotism in human history as to call down 
upon itself the execration of man and the vengeance 
of heaven. The South became more and more 
enamored of a system so diabolically profitable, 
and, elated by holding the fancied monopoly of the 
world's greatest staple, boldly proclaimed that cot- 
ton was king, — that cotton could only be produced 



32 THE HALE STATUE. 

by slave labor, and that therefore slavery should be 
a permanent institution, to be nursed, protected, 
preserved, extended, and made the corner stone 
and vital principle of their civilization. From that 
time the North and South grew wider and wider 
apart, and the rival systems of freedom and slavery 
contended fiercely for the mastery in the great 
masses of territory that had been successively 
added to the Union. Happily, the great ordinance 
of 1787, a state paper deserving to take rank with 
the declaration of independence, which Lord 
Brougham said should always hang in the cab- 
inet of kings, had predestined to freedom a vast 
region, a virgin soil where no prior rights had 
taken root and no tares been sown, and to its efii- 
cacy we are indebted for the great free common- 
wealths of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, and Minnesota, stretching from the Ohio to 
the sources of the Mississippi, — though slavery did 
not give them up even without a further struggle. 
The South, with a bad faith which became charac- 
teristic, demanded the abrogation of the ordinance, 
and an agitation began to be manifested whose 
dull and distant rumblings, forerunners of volcanic 
outbreaks, could be heard ever and anon during* 
the next thirty years. But, over the Louisiana 
purchase of 1803, that vast region extending from 
the Gulf of Mexico to the headwaters of the Miss- 
ouri, the old empires of Spain and France had 
legalized slavery, and consequently the institution 
was already planted there beyond dispute. Louisi- 
ana and Arkansas were taken into the LTnion as 
slave states, but at a little later day, when Missouri 



UNVEII.ING CEREMONIES. 33 

applied for admission in 1818, the friends of free- 
dom, then in control of the house of representa- 
tives, demanded the exclusion of slavery. There- 
upon ensued a memorable struggle lasting two 
years, but finall}^ settled by the Missouri compro- 
mise passed in 1820, whereby Missouri was admit- 
ted with the slavery that has cursed and hampered 
her ever since, and the ]N^orth in lieu of it got the 
solemn agreement of the South for the reversion of 
freedom in the part of the territory not yet organ- 
ized, in the following words : ^'And be it further 
eMCicted, that in all that territory ceded by France 
to the United States under the name of Louisiana, 
which lies north of 36° 30' north latitude, excepting 
only such part thereof as is included within the 
limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery 
and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in pun- 
ishment of crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall be and is forever prohibited." 
Florida was then admitted in 1821, and once more 
the country breathed freely, and j^eace for the 
future was supposed to be secure. But the tiger 
craving of the South for conquest and power had 
been whetted, and its aggressive and Philistine 
character appeared ever and anon, in the discus- 
sions upon the tariff, the public lands, the right of 
petition, the right of interference with the mails in 
search of " incendiary publications," the Creek and 
Seminole War, and otherwise, that came up in the 
following twenty years. That at the end slavery 
had made a distinct advance upon freedom, enlarg- 
ing its pretensions, aggrandizing itself anew at 
every step, and more and more completely subju- 

3 



34 THE HALE STATUE. 

gating the public opinion of the North to its uses, 
is a truth abundantly eviclenced by the history of 
the time. In 1832 Mr. Calhoun had organized the 
slave power, and brought it forward upon the scene 
with a distinct purpose and programme of its own; 
and, less than twenty-five years after the Missouri 
compromise, that power, now become a propaganda 
of the most ruthless character, and, holding entire 
control of the federal government, had adroitly and 
criminally plotted and brought about the severance 
of Texas from Mexico, overrun and revolutionized 
it, and now proposed to annex it to the slave inter- 
est in the Union, and make its preponderance final 
and decisive. This had been notoriously done in 
the interest of slave extension. These encroach- 
ments of the South upon freedom were well calcu- 
lated to arouse the latent and slowly-growing anti- 
slavery sentiments of the j^orth, and, in fact, 
brought a crisis which enlisted the energies of 
many noble souls. 

At this juncture John P. Hale took his seat in 
the national house of representatives — into this 
seething caldron of slavery agitation his political 
life was cast. He had inherited no anti-slavery 
principles — such as he had were the fruit of a 
steady growth of heart and brain. He had been 
awakened by the trend of events and ideas between 
the Storrs meeting in the Dover church and 1843, 
and he found his conscience and his whole l)etter 
nature insurgent against the slave system. Per- 
haps no man ever entered congress with more 
flattering prospects. His reputation had preceded 
him, and his gifts as an orator gave him an imme- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 35 

diate hearing in the house. In the opening days 
of the session he entered freely into the debates, 
taking a very prominent stand as an advocate of 
Democratic principles, and attracting wide and 
admiring attention by his oratorical power. There 
was the fire of a passionate sincerity in his eloquent 
improvisations ; and I well remember the contem- 
porary characterizations of him as the " Democratic 
Boanerges," the " Granite State cataract," and 
other like expressions. He proposed measures of 
retrenchment in regard to West Point, the army, 
and the navy, and advocated a i-eduction in postage 
rates, and the abolition of corpoi-al punishment in 
the army. On the 3d of June, 1844, he set in 
motion a great movement for humanity by moving 
an amendment to the naval appropriation bill, abol- 
ishing flogging in the navy, and his eloquence 
carried it in the house, but it was lost in the senate. 
Then came the act of Mr. Hale which may fairly 
be regarded as the initial point of his great career 
upon those lines which he afterwards followed with 
such devoted singleness of heart and purpose. The 
annexation of Texas was the pet scheme of Presi- 
dent Tyler, but was supported zealously by the 
extreme pro-slavery party at the South with Mr. 
Calhoun at their head. He was their leading intel- 
lect, and it was soon seen to be a scheme in the 
direct and exclusive interest of slavery extensiou. 
Accordingly, as its character unfolded, the sponta- 
neous feeling and expression of the JS^orth were 
opposed to it. The project of slavery extension 
was opposed by all the accredited organs of Demo- 
cratic party opinion in IS^ew Hampshire, alike hy 



36 THE HALE STATUE. 

the leaders, the press, and the masses of the party 
itself. It was denounced by the press in unmeas- 
ured terms as a design " black as ink and bitter as 
hell." This was the undoubted attitude of the 
Democratic party of ^ew Hampshire in 1843 and 
1844. But the South had obtained complete con- 
trol of the national councils and patronage, and the 
word had gone forth that Texas was to be annexed 
to the Union for the aggrandizement of slavery, 
and such was the power of the South over the 
national convention that Mr. Yan Buren, for whom 
the Democracy of New Hampshire had unanimously 
instructed their delegates, was defrauded of the 
presidential nomination on account of his opposi- 
tion to the annexation of Texas, and Mr. Polk 
nominated because he favored the scheme. There- 
fore, to keep in line with, or rather to obey the 
behests of, the Southern Democracy, the Democratic 
newspapers and public men of Kew Hampshire 
had to change front, and to eat their own brave 
words of resistance to that domination. In fact, 
the annexation of Texas had been first hinted at, 
then timidly suggested, and at length boldly 
avowed as the Democratic policy in the teeth of all 
the anti-slavery feeling of the Northern states ; 
and not only this, but as a treat}^ of annexation, 
which the whole North believed to be the only con- 
stitutional way of acquiring foreign territory, could 
not be carried through the senate, it was resolved 
by an unscrupulous and domineering slave party to 
defy all constitutional restraints, and annex Texas 
by joint resolution. So complete was the domina- 
tion of Southern men and interests over the Demo- 



UNVEILI]S1G CEREMONIES. 37 

cratic party of the ^oi'th that at their dictation the 
Xew Hampshire Democracy reversed its coiu'se, 
and the legishiture in Deceml)er, 1844, passed reso- 
hitions instructing the senators and representatives 
in congress to vote for the annexation of Texas. 
It was true that Mr. Hale had powerfully and effec- 
tively advocated the election of Mr. Polk, who was 
known to be in favor of annexation, but he had done 
so, undoubtedly, with the understanding that 
annexation was to be effected, if at all, by constitu- 
tional methods, by the treaty-making power which 
all the great organs of constitutional interpretation 
had insisted upon, and also that as many or more 
free than slave states were to be added to the 
Union, and thus the area of freedom was to l^e 
extended at least equally with that of slavery. 
This was the language of l^orthern speakers, and 
the Democratic press, headed by the Democratic 
Review^ all through the campaign. This was Mr. 
Clay's opinion, and some Southern men opposed 
the annexation upon the very ground "• that Texas 
as an undivided slave country, though a foreign 
one, was preferable to Texas carved up into an 
equal number of slaveholding and non-sLave- 
holding states." The JSTew Hampshire legislature 
in these very resolutions of instruction expressed 
the belief that the annexation of Texas would add 
more free than slave states to the Union. But 
Mr. Polk had been elected, and the South pro- 
ceeded at once to pluck the spoils of victory. 
Before the inauguration so eager were they for the 
consummation of the scheme that at the session 
commencing in December, 1844, the Texas project 



38 THE HALE STATUE. 

was brought forward. All the pent-up fires of 
]!^orthern opposition to slavery extension and 
aggrandizement were fanned into a flame, and a 
fierce contention arose. Mr. Hale, evidently with 
no idea of breaking with his party, instead of bend- 
ing to the dictation of the Southern leaders, pro- 
ceeded simply to carry out the opinions he was 
known to entertain, which he had avowed in New 
Hampshire, which he had expressed by his action 
iu vindication of the right of petition, and in which 
he had every reason to suppose he would be sus- 
tained by his Democratic constituents at home. He 
accordingly moved a suspension of the rules in 
order to move to divide Texas into two parts, in 
one of which slavery should be forever prohibited ; 
but though his motion was carried by a majority, 
it failed for want of a two-thirds vote. This, and 
the scornful defeat of every movement looking to a 
division of Texas between freedom and slavery, 
showed only too clearly the animus of the whole 
scheme. In fiict, if Texas, or any part of it, had 
been let in with a constitution prohibiting slavery, 
subsequent proceedings would have interested its 
advocates no more. 

Mr. Hale then addressed to his constituents, " the 
Democratic Republican electors of N^ew Hamp- 
shire," the famous letter dated July 7, 1845, in 
which he took ground against the Texas scheme, 
exposing its character in no measured terms, as 
purely in the interest of slave extension. He 
declared his unalterable opposition to the annexa- 
tion by congress of a foreign nation for the avowed 
purpose of extending and perpetuating slavery. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 39 

He stigmatized the reasons given by its advocates 
in its behalf as " eminently calculated to provoke 
the scorn of earth and the judgment of heaven," 
and thns appealed to the patriotic traditions of one 
of the most patriotic of the " old thirteen": — "When 
our forefathers bade a last farewell to the homes of 
their childhood, the graves of their fathers, and the 
temples of their God, and ventured upon all the 
desperate contingencies of wintry seas and a sav- 
age coast, that they might in strong faith and 
ardent hope lay deep the foundations of the temple 
of liberty, their faith would have become scepticism, 
and their hope despair, could thc}^ have foreseen 
that the day would ever arrive when their degener- 
ate sons should be found seeking to extend then- 
boundaries and their government, not for the pur- 
pose of promoting freedom, but sustaining slavery." 
This letter for a moment gave pause to political 
movements in ]^ew Hampshire, but was very soon 
met by a storm of denunciation from the party 
leaders. The decree went forth that Mr. Hale was 
to be thrown overboard for his contumacy, and at 
a convention of the party called for the purpose 
February 12, 1845, his nomination was rescinded, 
his name struck from the ticket, and another sub- 
stituted. But there was a pul)lic conscience that 
only needed to be aroused, and the letter had struck 
a chord that was only waiting to be touched by the 
hand of a master. Immediately there were signs 
of a revolt in the Democratic party against this 
despotic sway at the dictation of the slave power, 
and under the lead of Amos Tuck and John L. 
Hayes a small party styling themselves Tndepend- 



40 THE HALE STATUE. 

ent Democrats rallied about the standard of Mr. 
Hale. This was the first meeting in a state where 
the party rule was absolute — which had been under 
Democratic control since 1829, and had given Mr. 
Polk 6,000 majority. Meanwhile, although faithful 
sentinels on the watch towers of freedom fore- 
warned the JS^orth of the direful consequences of 
annexation, it was carried in the house by 134 to 
77, showing the gains slavery had made, John P. 
Hale and Hannibal Hamlin alone among the IN^orth- 
ern Democracy refusing to bow the knee at the 
party behest. Thus the administration of Mr. 
Tyler, not otherwise illustrious, was distinguished 
at last by the admission of Texas. The election 
came off March 11, 1845. Mr. Hale received about 
8,000 votes, and the regular Democratic candidate 
lacked about 1,000 votes of an election. Mr. Hale 
had taken no very active part in it. He had not 
been hopeful of a successful resistance to the party 
despotism, and had made arrangements to retire 
from political life, and take up the practice of his 
profession in the city of ]S^ew York. Many years 
afterward he said in the senate, — " When I went 
home from Washington at the close of the session 
in 1845, I had no uiore idea of being returned to 
congress than I had of succeeding to the vacant 
throne of China." Moreover, in his letter to his 
constituents, he had rather incautiously said : " If 
you think difterently from me on this subject, and 
should therefore deem it expedient to select another 
person to effectuate your purpose in congress, no 
person in the state will bow more submissively to 
your will than myself." With a perhaps over- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. -tl 

scrupulous sense of honor, he regarded this as a 
sort of pledge 'to leave the result with them with- 
out interference. But the result of the first trial 
convinced him that Xew Hampshire was not yet 
irrevocably mortgaged to the slave propaganda, 
nor wdioUy prepared to execute the edicts of party 
tyranny. His friends gathered around him, and 
demanded that he take the field in person. Their 
summons to him was the appeal of the Andalusian 
king to the ancient Douglas : 

" Take thou the leading of the van. 
And charge the Moors amain ; 
There is not such a lance as thine 
In all the hosts of Spain." 

Mr. Hale yielded to these importunities rather 
than to any ambitious views or hopes of his own. 
He assumed the leadership ; he canvassed the state ; 
he delivered speeches wherever he could get a 
hearing, to audiences large and small, in halls, in 
churches, in vestries, in school-rooms, in the open 
air, everywhere stirring and thrilling the people 
with his w^arm and glowing eloquence, and his 
impassioned appeals to duty and manliness. He 
was then in his full prime. His figure was noble 
and commanding — 

"A combination and a form indeed. 
Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man." 

His voice was resonant and flexible ; his counte- 
nance was one of striking manly l)eauty ; he had 
perfect command of words, and perfect command 



42 THE HALE STATUE. 

of his temper; his self-control, his chivalrous cour- 
tesy, were super!) ; his sincerity and loyalty to his 
convictions were manifest, and it required a crisis 
like tliis, the liberties of man hanging in the bal- 
ance, to give full sweep to his unrivalled powers, 
his wit, his humor, his brilliant repartee, and bring 
into play all the resources of his large mind, his 
humane spirit, his liberty-loving heart. The cir- 
cumstances had never had a parallel. Here was a 
man who was voluntarily putting to hazard the 
highest hopes and brightest prospects — renouncing 
all by a sublime act of political abnegation and self- 
elfacement — maldng way for hberty like Arnold 
Von Winkelreid charging the Austrian army ; 
giving up a party whose ascendency in his own 
state was so pronounced as to be beyond question, 
whose particular pride and pet he was, and by 
whose generous suffrages he had been set forward 
in a career of political advancement whose goal he 
might without unwarranted pretension easily see in 
the highest honor of the world. As far as human 
forecast could reach, this course opened to him no 
road to favor or patronage. As no man could be 
so visionary as to indulge a hope of breaking the 
spell of Democratic victory in IS^ew Hampshire, 
adherence to his party connection and obedience 
to party direction were unquestionably the readiest 
and only path to influence and jiromotion. Con- 
curring with this was Mr. Hale's natural fondness 
for popular applause and for political life, his al- 
leged ambition, and his growing popularity as an 
orator and statesman. But all were renounced. 
He hazarded wealth, power, political preferment. 



UNVEILING OEKEMONIES. 48 

and held out no lure to his followers but the cold 
and hunger which Garibaldi promised to those who 
should strike with him for the deliverance of Italy. 
In his own words, he sat on no stool of repentance. 
He maintained the defiant attitude he had taken 
up, and defended his position before the people 
with imperturbable wit, with infinite good humor, 
and incomparable eloquence. In this extraordinary 
crusade of Mr. Hale there was a certain romantic 
knight-errantry, which, with the charm of his per- 
sonality, his gallant and chivalrous bearing, his 
noble heart, his freedom from all vindictiveness as 
from every selfish ambition, captivated the imagina- 
tion of the people, and made him an ideal popular 
hero. Brave men flocked to his standard, and 
gladly bared their own bosoms to the shafts of the 
pro-slavery hatred aimed at him. He was a popu- 
lar idol, and made of political coadjutors devoted 
personal friends. They lived in his "mild and 
magnificent eye," and loved to follow wherever his 
white plume danced in the eddies of the fight. 
They were his disciples, and asked nothing better 
than the title of "Hale men," thus identifying 
themselves with this eloquent champion of liberty 
S(fn8 pear et sans reprodie. I shall never forget 
how a noble old man once told me that in those 
days no night ever passed when he and his wife 
did not together send up their prayers that God 
would bless, and protect, and keep John P. Hale. 
And not alone were their aspirations wafted heaven- 
ward for his welfare ; but thousands in jS^ew Hamp- 
shire, and everywhere in America where human 
hearts were beo-inning to stir with new thoughts of 



44 THE HALE STATUE. 

freedom, sent up daily their petitions to the Most 
Higli to cover his head in battle, and shelter him 
under the shadow of His wing. The " Hale storm" 
of 1845 is the heroic and romantic episode of oiu- 
political history, and veterans who lived in and 
have survived that time turn back to the period 
fondly as one when it was woi'th Avhile to live. 
Thus the conflict went on through the summer 
days, and 

•' His was the voice that rang 
In the fight like a bugle-call.'" 

Perhaps its most striking incident was the cele- 
brated meeting of Mr. Hale and Franklin Pierce at 
the Old jSTorth church in Concord on the 9th of 
June, 1845. The circumstances were suited to 
exhibit Mr. Hale's extraordinary poAvers, and they 
were displayed to the greatest advantage. During 
that week, the legislature commenced its session. A 
meeting of Independent Democrats, to be addressed 
by Mr. Hale, had been called, and there was an 
unusual assemblage of people in town in attendance 
upon various religious and benevolent anniversaries. 
The Democrats, apprehensive of the efi^ect of such 
a speech upon an audience so intelligent and con- 
scientious, resolved that he must be answered on the 
spot, and Franklin Pierce was selected as the only 
man at all fitted for such an encounter. The old 
church was crowded beyond its capacity. Mr. Hale 
spoke for two hours, making a calm, dignified, and 
efiective vindication of his principles and conduct. 
Occasionally rudely interrupted, he never lost his 
temper, nor that splendid equanimity which availed 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 45 

him on so many occasions in debate. He rose to a 
surprising eloquence in denunciation of slavery, and 
at the end it was manifest that, whether they agreed 
with his conclusions or not, all were convinced that 
he had been actuated by pure motives and a high 
sense of public duty. 

Mr. Pierce was himself a nervous, energetic, and 
brilliant orator; but, for the task set before him, he 
was handicapped by the inconsistencies of the Dem- 
ocratic record, and by Mr. Hale's glowing appeal to 
the nobler sentiments of humanity, lifting the plane 
of discussion entirely above its ordinary dead level. 
He replied to Mr. Hale in a passionate and impe- 
rious, not to say insolent, manner, accusing him of 
ambitious motives, and defending, as he only could, 
the party in power for its efforts to extend the area 
of the republic by bringing the vast territory of 
Texas under its sway. The advantage in temper 
was very manifest, and when Mr. Hale had rejoined 
with a triumphant vindication of his own motives 
and jjurposes, he closed with this magnificent appeal : 
''I expected to be called ambitious; to have my 
name cast out as evil. I have not been disappoint- 
ed. But, if things have come to this condition, that 
conscience and a sacred regard for truth and duty 
are to be publicly held up to ridicule, and scouted at 
without rebuke, as has just been done here, it mat- 
ters little whether we are annexed to Texas or 
Texas is annexed to us. I may l)e permitted to 
say that the measure of my ambition will be full, if, 
when my earthly career shall be finished and my 
bones be laid beneath the soil of ^N^ew Hampshire, 
when my wife and children shall repair to my grave 



46 THE HALE STATUE. 

to drop the tear of affection to my memory, they may 
read on my tombstone, ' He who lies beneath snr- 
rendered office, place, and power, rather than bow 
down and worship slavery.' " In the opinion of 
Mr. Hale's friends, his victory was indisputable. ^N^o 
debate in 'New Hampshire ever had such interest, 
and none results at all comparable with it in import- 
ance. Beyond doubt Mr. Pierce's effort that day 
made him president of the United States, and Mr. 
Hale's led to the triumph of his party, whereby he 
became the first anti-slavery senator and the recog- 
nized pioneer champion of the Free-Soil movement. 
On the 23d of September, 1845, the third trial was 
held for representative in congress, resulting in a 
Democratic defeat by about the same vote as be- 
fore, the Hale men holding the balance of j3ower 
between them and the Whigs. JN^ovember 29, 1845, 
a fourth trial left the Democrats in a still more deci- 
sive minority; and then the final struggle for mas- 
tery in the state was postponed to the annual elec- 
tion, March 10, 1846. During the winter, Mr. Hale 
canvassed the state again, everywhere the admired 
champion of a cause now manifestly advancing to 
certain triumph. The result was a complete over- 
throw of the party in power in New Hampshire, the 
Whigs and Independent Democrats together hav- 
ing both branches of the legislature, and a consid- 
erable majority of the popular vote, though there 
was no election of governor or congressman by the 
people. Mr. Hale was chosen a representative from 
Dover, and, by a coalition of Hale men and Whigs, 
was made speaker of the house. Mr. Colby, the 
Whig candidate, was elected governor, and, on the 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 47 

9tli of June, 1846, Mr. Hale was chosen United 
States senator for the full term of six years com- 
mencing March 4, 1847. Thus, upon an issue dis- 
tinctly joined, the Democracy had been signally 
defeated, and the Giliraltar of the :N'orth had passed 
into the hands of the combined opposition. The 
first and strongest outwork had been carried in a 
square contest against the extension of a system 
which met the moral reprobation of the world, and 
the victory proclaimed that never again was ^ew 
Hampshrre to sit supinely by, to take the orders 
and register the edicts of slavery. The note of defi- 
ance and of resistance to further slavery aggression 
rang out clear and strong from these ^ew Hamp- 
shire hills, and was heard throughout America. 
^o ear so dull that did not hear it; no brain so 
sluggish that did not comprehend it. As armies 
in mythologic story paused in mid-contest to watch 
the issue of a single combat, so in some sense the 
people of America turned to observe the outcome 
of this struggle; and Mr. Hale's success in 'New 
Hampshire in resistance to slavery, and to party 
subserviency and tyranny, was the first lightning 
gleam of victory lighting up the dark clouds that 
hung over the country. It was an encouragement 
and a challenge to other states and the friends of 
liberty elsewhere. An inspired singer and prophet 
of anti-slavery had watched the struggle with 
breathless interest from his home just across our 
border, and it called out from him that immortal 
tribute to New Hampshire, which will live with her 
fame and the name of John G. Whittier forever: 



48 THE HALE STATUE. 

'' God bless New Hampshire — from her granite peaks 
Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon sjjeaks. 
The long bound vassal of the exulting South 
For very shame her self-forged chain has broken, — 
Torn the black seal of slavery from her mouth, 
And in the clear tones of her old time spoken I 
Oh, all undreamed of, all unhoped for changes ! 
The tyrant's ally jn-oves his sternest foe ; 
To all his biddings, from her mountain ranges. 
New Hampshire thunders an indignant No ! 
Who is it now despairs ? Oh I faint of heart, 
Look ujiward to those Northern mountains cold. 
Flouted by Freedom's victor-flag unrolled, 
And gather strength to bear a manlier part ! 
All is not lost. The Angel of God's blessing- 
Encamps with Freedom on the field of fight ; 
Still to her banner, day by day, are pressing 
Unlocked for allies, striking for the right ! 
Courage, then. Northern hearts ! — Be firm, be true : 
What one brave state hath done, can ye not also do ?" 

Here were the first fruits of John P. Hale's man- 
ly resistance to slavery in America. At first but a 
feeble protest, scarcely heard amid the hosannas of 
Northern servility to the slave power, it had swelled 
into a volume of indignant opposition, which had 
swept away the strongest muniments of oppression 
in the ]^orth. It gave courage everywhere for the 
great struggle just opening before this people. In 
the words of Cardinal Newman, " We did but light 
a beacon fire on the summit of a lonely hill; and 
anon we Avere amazed to find the firmament on 
every side red with the light of a responsive flame." 

And now, is there occasion for either hesitation 
or apology in maldng claim in behalf of John P. 
Hale for pioneership in the great Free-soil move- 
ment which finally overthrew slavery in the United 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 49 

States? New Hampshire was the first battle-field 
of the new crusade, and John P. Hale commanded 
the vang-uard. Aye, more, in his Texas letter he 
had formulated the issues upon which the fight was 
to be made and won, the identical postulates which 
were afterwards to be the principles of a great polit- 
ical party not yet born, under whose lead the war 
was to be fought and emancipation come to the 
country and the slave. The Hon. Amos Tuck, one 
of the earliest, ablest, and most laithful of the fol- 
lowers of Mr. Hale, at Downer Landing in 1878, 
met the claim of Massachusetts that the Kepubli- 
can party was founded there in 1848, by showing 
that that party was anticipated in every one of its 
ideas by the Hale party in ]S"ew Hampshire in 
1845, and that John P. Hale won his election as 
the first anti-slavery senator, and sat in that body, 
alone, as such, for two years before a friendly 
senator came to join him, and two years before the 
date which Massachusetts claims for her patent. 
This claim for New Hampshire and for Mr. Hale is 
impregnable. Therefore I say that no man can pre- 
cede Mr. Hale as the founder of the Republican 
party, and all that is implied thereby : and that 
whatever of merit may attach to such a sponsor- 
ship — and I know full well that many still regard it 
as a cause for condemnation rather than praise — 
that whatever of glory or shame there be in it, be- 
longs to him moi-e than to any other man. I must 
ask indulgence for the use of political terminology, 
which I employ because I find our resources of ex- 
pression inadequate to convey any clear ideas with- 
out using the terms Democrat and Republican. 



50 THE HALE STATUE. 

Mr. Halo took bis seat in the senate, December 
6, 1847, and for the first time American slavery 
was confronted in his person l^y the aroused moral 
sense of the American people. From his first dra- 
matic appearance in that body this solitary repre- 
sentative of freedom was the object of the bitter 
hatred and disdain of the slave oligarchy. He en- 
tered a senate composed of thirty-two Democrats, 
twenty-one Whigs, and himself. Declining to be 
classified Avith either, he unfalteringly took up and 
held the position of an anti-slavery independent. 
He declined the obscurity to which both sides would 
have relegated him, and for two years before he 
was joined by Chase in 1849, the anti-slavery move- 
ment centred around his striking personality, and 
he stood there alone, resisting at every step the ag- 
gressive measures of slavery, maintaining his ground 
with unsurpassed resources of wit and logic, elo- 
quence and good humor. He entered resolutely 
into the public business and had to stand in the 
breach and contend single-handed with the entire 
senate, containing then not only the great triumvi- 
rate of oratory and statesmanshij), but also many 
others of the highest distinction and ability. He 
met them face to face, and dealt sturdy blows for 
freedom in everj^ emergency. His weapons were 
of that firm edge and fine temper that might be 
broken, but would not turn, in their impact upon 
the brazen front of oppression. Every means of 
silencing him was resorted to, threats, insults, sneers, 
ridicule, derision. He was treated with studied 
contempt by the South, and with cold neglect by 
the ISTorth. He was denied the common courtesy 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 51 

of a 23lace on senatorial committees, being told pub- 
licly by a senator who was, afterward expelled from 
the body for disloyalty, that he was considered out- 
side of any healthy political organization in the 
comitry. But this discipline was lost on him. He 
had the moral courage which shrinks from no duty — 
that calm, firm, cool, inflexible, resolution which 
clinched its determination to go straightforward 
with Luther's exclamation, " I will repair thither 
though I should find there as many devils as there 
are tiles on the house tops. I cannot do otherwise, 
God hel])ing me." It is not practicable to refer 
minutely to the debates in which Mr. Hale mingled 
in the senate. In 181:8, in the discussion upon the 
admission of Oregon, he proposed as an amendment 
the ordinance of 1787 excluding slavery, which 
gave rise to a fier-ce debate, in the course of which 
he was the subject of most personal and inflamma- 
tory denunciations. He defended himself with con- 
summate ability, declaring his determination to 
XDi-ess the prohibition of slavery according to his 
own judgment. Said he, " I am willing to place 
myself upon the great principle of human right, to 
stand where the word of God and my own con- 
science concur in placing me, and then bid defiance 
to all consequences." Early in April, 1848, upon 
resolutions of sympathy with the up-risings of the 
down-trodden nationalities of Europe, Mr. Hale 
spoke in the senate in a strain of sadness mingled 
with enthusiasm and a lofty hope for the disenthrall- 
ment of all men, in America and Europe alike. 

In a debate occasioned by certain mob demon- 
strations against the ofiice of the J^fational Era in 



62 THE HALE STATUE. 

Washington, Mr. Hale introduced a resolution cop- 
ied from the laws of Maryland, providing for the 
reimbursement of persons Avhose property should 
be destroyed by riotous assemblages. This led to 
a controversy with Mr. Calhoun, in which the great 
Southerner forgot his usual urbanity and became 
violently personal, and ended his speech by saying, 
that he " would as soon argue with a maniac from 
Bedlam as with the senator from 'New Hampshire 
on this subject." Mr. Hale retorted by telling Mr. 
Calhoun that it was a novel mode of terminating a 
controversy by charitably throwing the mantle of a 
maniac's irresponsibility upon one's antagonist. In 
this debate, Mr. Foote of Mississippi, after many 
insulting expressions, and denouncing Mr. Hale's 
bill as " obviously intended to cover and protect 
negro stealing," turned to Mr. Hale and said:''! 
invite him to visit the good state of Mississippi, in 
which I have the honor to reside, and will tell him 
beforehand in all honesty, that he could not go ten 
miles into the interior before he would grace one of 
the tallest trees of the forest with a rope around 
his neck, with the approbation of every virtuous 
and patriotic citizen; and that, if necessary, I should 
myself assist in the operation." Mr. Hale replied: 
" The senator invites me to visit the state of Missis- 
sippi, and kindly informs me that he would be one 
of those who would act the assassin, and put an end 
to my cai-eer * * ^ Well, in return for his hospit- 
able invitation, I can only express the desire that 
he should penetrate into one of the ' dark cor- 
ners ' of JSTew Hampshire, and, if he do, I am much 
mistaken if he would not find that the people in 



UNVEILING CEREMOlSriES. 53 

that ' benighted region ' wonld be very happy to lis- 
ten to his argnnients, and engage in an intellectual 
conflict with him, in which the truth might be elic- 
ited." The ruffianism of the assault, and the noble- 
ness of the reply, have consigned Senator Foote, 
though a brilliant and by no means a bad man, to 
the pillory of history, with a soul^riquet given him 
by the public instinct which will last forever. 

He opposed the Avhole system of measures pur- 
sued in prosecuting the war with Mexico, because, 
in the language of Mr. Webster himself, it was " an 
iniquitous war made in order to obtain, l^y conquest, 
slave territory." In December, 18^9, Mr. Hale 
again jH-oposed to incorporate the ordinance of 1787 
into Mr. Foote's resolution, declaring it to be the 
duty of congress to provide territorial governments 
for California, Deseret, and :N'ew Mexico. 

At a later day the compromise measures of 1850, 
including the fugitive slave law, which he loathed 
and defied, were fought by him with all the weap- 
ons of his logic, wit, ridicule, and sarcasm, and with 
all his parliamentary resources. He occupied two 
days in an elaborate argument, vindicating the 
principles, measures, and acts of anti-slavery men. 

This was, perhaps, the most powerful of his sena- 
torial eftbrts. In it he grappled resolutely with 
the morality, the statesmanship, and the policy, of 
Mr. Webster's 7th of March speech, quoting his 
former declarations against himself, agreeing with 
Mr. Webster in 1848, but dissenting from him in 
1850, and saying: ''Yet the senator says he 
would not reenact the laws of God. Well, sn-, I 
would. When he tells me that the law of God is 



54 THE HALE STATUE. 

against slavery, it is a most potent argument for 
our incorporating it with any territorial bill " He 
closed with an eloquent presentation of the princi- 
ples and aims of the Free-Soil party, of which he 
was the foremost champion. 

The abolition of flogging in the navy was a con- 
genial field for the exertion of his humane spirit. 
In the senate he promptly renewed the eftbrts he 
had commenced in the house. In July, 1848, he mov- 
ed to insert in the naval appropriation bill a clause 
abolishing the spirit ration and prohibiting corporal 
punishment in the navy. He addressed the senate 
in its favor, but only four senators rose with him. 
In February, 184:9, he again presented petitions, 
and made a strong speech, in which he depicted in 
glowing colors the brutality, degradation, and out- 
rage of punishment with the cat-o'-nine-tails, but 
was voted down by 32 to 17. In September, 1850, 
he made a final impassioned appeal to the senate to 
stand no longer in the way of the abolition of flog- 
ging in the navy, and on the same day it was car- 
ried as a part of the appropriation bill by a vote of 
26 to 24, and was concurred in by the house. Thus 
at last his eftbrts were crowned with success. It 
was a joyful day for the American navy and for 
humanity. It was one of the most gratifying inci- 
dents of his life when, two years after, he was re- 
ceived by Commodore i^icholson and crew on board 
the man-of-war Oerniavtown in Boston harbor, who 
thanked him for his noble eftbrts in abolishing flog- 
ging in the United States navy, i^resented him 
with a medal, and manned the yards in his honor. 
It was not till twelve vears after, however, that he 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. t>5 

secured the abolition of the spirit ration. His 
agency in these beneficent reforms is one of liis 
chiefest titles to honor, and is most fittingly com- 
memorated on the pedestal of this statue. 

Thus upon every question that arose he sustained 
his part with a manliness, a courage, and a nobility of 
soul which extorted the admiration of foes as well 
as friends. To adapt the language of Junius, " The 
rays of Southern indignation collected upon him 
served only to illumine, they could not consume." 
The estimate placed upon his services and character 
was manifested by his unanimous nomination for 
the presidency by the Liberty party at Buffalo in 
1847. He magnanimously relinquished this candi- 
dacy, and submitted himself to the will of the later 
Free-Soil convention at Buffalo in 1848, thus mak- 
ing way for Mr. Van Bureii, who was there nom- 
inated over him by a majority of 40 votes. Mr. 
Hale afterwards said that if he had had any idea 
that the Barnburners had in mind only to revenge 
Mr. Van Buren's wrongs upon Gen. Cass in 1848, 
he would have lost his right hand before he would 
have been a party to such a fraud. In August, 
1852, the Free-Soil party at Pittsburg nominated 
Mr. Hale as its candidate for president, and under 
the banner of Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, 
Free Men, JSTo More Slave States, and no Slave Ter- 
ritories, he received at the election 155,850 votes. 

His first term in the senate is the period of focal 
interest in Mr. Hale's career. He was the gallant 
leader of a forlorn hope. He was the avant courier 
of a new regime. In him were concentrated in germ 
all the forces of the new era. Every attempt to 



56 THE HALE STATUE. 

suppress liini proved unavailing. He stubbornly 
contested every inch of ground. He stood up and 
battled unfalteringly for his principles against all 
threats, all intimidations, all allurements. And yet 
he steered clear of all the breakers and shoals in 
such a dangerous course. His tact and disposition 
alike kept him always within the proprieties of de- 
bate. The enemies who hated him watched in vain 
for some word, some purpose disloyal to the Union 
which they affected to champion, but were foiled by 
the absence of all vindictive feeling or speech, and 
by a marvellous moderation and self-restraint in 
the face of provocation. Ignored, socially tabooed, 
insulted, he showed no resentment. Assailed ran- 
corously on all sides, he replied with good-natured 
vehemence, but a never-failing courtesy. Occasion- 
ally, however, he carried the war into Africa, and 
transfixed the slave power with the keen arrows of 
satire and invective. He gave the giant wrong no 
rest and no quarter. He charged its defenders 
in front and flank and rear, and, returning again 
and again to the combat, while his assaults were 
redoubled, he at length secured a comparative im- 
munity from personal attack. Thus his position 
lifted him into a grand and superb isolation; and 
now that we stand on the vantage ground which 
he won for us, we are able in some degree to enter 
into that high companionship, and into the elevation 
of spirit that sustained him in his self-appointed 
7'ole of austere political solitude. As has been said 
of General Gordon " we know to-day that he alone 
was awake in a world of dreamers." 

Thus for two years one great heroic figure was 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 57 

prominently before the eyes of America. Solitary 
and alone, he represented in the senate the dawn- 
ing hope of freedom. But may we not be sure 
that he already heard behind him, in imagination, 
the on-coming hosts of the new era, closing their 
ranks and advancing to the last onset against slav- 
ery, which should sweep away the embattled pha- 
lanxes of oppression? Did he not have something 
of the fine instinct of that Scottish girl, who, laying 
her ear to the ground, exclaimed, with streaming 
eyes and transfigured face, " Dinna ye hear the slo- 
gan? It's the Campbells a comin'!" So, again, on 
a larger battlefield than Lucknow, where greater 
issues hung in the balance, " the Campbells were 
a-comin'," and it was given to this inspired prophet 
of anti-slavery to cheer up the beleaguered garri- 
son of freedom, to make one more struggle and hold 
out for the victory. The Campbells came — Chase 
and Seward and Sumner were their vanguard — a 
glorious reenforcement, and Irom that moment the 
forces of liberty were to grow and grow, till the 
exasperated enemy should compass its own destruc- 
tion by raising its hand against that very Union 
whose sacredness had been for seventy years invok- 
ed in its defence. 

One can but wish for a more elaborate treatment 
than is here permitted of Mr. Hale's senatorial la- 
bors, and to reproduce some of the many thrilling 
appeals and noble sentiments which broke from his 
lips in the great discussions of his first term. But 
the student of the history of that exciting period, 
and the lover of eloquence, will be repaid by the 
perusal of those great debates, and will rise from 



58 THE HALE STATUE. 

them with an enhanced appreciation of the splen- 
did powers, no less than the grand earnestness and 
the priceless services to liberty, of John P. Hale. 

At the expiration of his first term his opponents 
were in control of New Hampshire, and chose his 
successor. Mr. Hale then proceeded to carry out 
a long cherished design to practise his profession 
in the city of JSTew York, but was recalled in 1855 
to fill the senatorial vacancy occasioned by the 
death of Mr. Atherton. He served out that term, 
and was then reelected for a full term commencing 
in 1859. During these ten years of senatorial ser- 
vice his coiirse was as straight as gravity. He 
stood nndismayed and with unshaken constancy 
amid the surges of a fierce contention, and nothing 
deflected him for one moment from that line of 
conduct which he had marked out as the path of 
conscience and duty. In the long struggles of 
that momentous period Mr. Hale was found in the 
forefront of every debate where liberty was drawn 
in peril. His speeches on the various phases of 
the Kansas controversy, the Oregon question, the 
Dred Scott decision, on the constitutional status of 
slavery, on the province of the supreme court in 
the settlement of questions of law and political 
policy, on the homestead bill, on the nefarious 
attempt to seize Cuba — all questions antedating 
the war, are among the historical headlands of the 
epoch; and he was ever the same bold and fearless 
advocate of that policy which was at an early day 
to take control of the destinies of the United 
States. 

Meantime, although Mr. Hale had gained a hear- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 59 

ing for freedom in the United States senate, and 
the subject of slavery was now open for discussion 
everywhere, yet it is beyond denial that the insti- 
tution had made a distinct advance in its aggres- 
sions upon the ISTorth, so far as public measures 
and its apparent hold upon public opinion were 
concerned. The decade from 1850 to 1860 was 
the aggressive decade of slavery. Up to that time 
a geographical barrier had stood against its ad- 
vance beyond certain definite limits. But that was 
broken down by their success in securing the pas- 
sage of the fugitive slave law by the aid of I^ortli- 
ern votes, and in enforcing it in the streets of 
Boston, where the master did " with his slaves sit 
down at the foot of Bunker Hill monument," as 
Mr. Toombs had insolently boasted to Mr. Hale, 
although in defiance of the ominous ground-swell 
of liberty that shook the walls of Faneuil Hall, — 
by their victory in overthrowing the Missouri com- 
promise, by the border-ruffian outrages in Kansas 
whereby a soil predestined to freedom was drenched 
with the blood of freemen, and by the Dred Scott 
decision. At the opening of that decade the Dem- 
ocratic party had already fallen into the deepest 
degradation and servility to slavery. The rabble 
of the cities, poisoned with race antipathies and 
the vanity and pride of power, had been played 
upon by the pliant demagogues of the ISTorth till 
they exhibited a sort of rabies at the mention of 
the subject of slavery. The Whig party, whose 
public utterances had been till this time full of 
sounding phrases protesting its fidelity to liberty, 
was rapidly and surely passing under the yoke. 



60 THE HALE STATUE. 

Cotton and trade, greed and conservatism, had 
done their work, had honeycombed that great 
organization, and left it only a thin and superficial 
veneering of anti-slavery sentiment. So deter- 
mined was the I^orth to stand by all the legal pre- 
tensions of slavery, that all hope of its removal in 
the Southern states, which idealists and ultra 
abolitionists were dreaming of, was now foreclosed. 
The only problem left was to prevent its extension. 
It could not be hoped to recede — how far should it 
advance? Indeed, the friends of freedom had con- 
fined their labors to the exclusion of slavery from 
the territories, not venturing to assert their power 
over it even in the District of Columbia, where the 
clanking of the bondman's chains was to be heard 
till the nation should be shaken by the throes of 
the Civil War. The Free-Soilers never claimed 
any right to legislate against slavery in the South- 
ern states. Within those limits it was safe; was 
entrenched behind the constitution, and might have 
remained undisturbed to this day, had they abided 
by that line. But the South was judicially blind, 
and made every advance a pretence for a new 
aggression, until every congress was the theatre 
of a conflict on the subject ever growing more and 
more intense. 

Look at a partial catalogue of its excesses in this 
decade. In 1850 by the compromise measures 
congress renounced all authority over the internal 
slave trade, exempted California, 'New Mexico, 
and Utah from all restriction as to slavery, and 
enacted the fugitive slave law, throwing to the 
^orth the poor sop of abolishing the slave trade 



UNVEILING CEKEMONIES. 61 



in the District of Columbia. The Missouri com- 
promise was overthrown in 1854, and the territory 
north of 36 cleg. 30 min., supposed to have been 
shielded from the possibility of contamination, 
thrown open to slavery. The climax of outrage 
upon the :N"orth was reached in the Dred Scott de- 
cision, whereby the highest judicial tribunal of the 
land delivered a judgment which overturned the 
law of the world that slavery was a merely local 
and municipal institution, and announced the doc- 
trine that the constitution protected the slave-holder 
in his " property " wherever he might go. By this 
decision, making slavery national and freedom 
sectional, slavery became the public law of the re- 
public; and its unparalleled inlamy justifies Mr. 
Hale's indignation when he said in 1864, " In my 
humble judgment if there was one single, palpable, 
obvious, duty that we owed to ourselves, owed to 
the country, owed to honesty, owed to God, when 
we came into power, it was to drive a plowshare 
from turret to foundation stone of the supreme 
court of the United States." 

Slavery felt itself secure only so long as it could 
push itself into new fields; and therefore not only 
was the door to every territory thrown open, but 
a raid was organized upon Cuba, and a piratical 
jingoism held out a most tempting lure, even to 
cool Northern statesmen, who could but warm to 
the idea of a universal sway over the world's des- 
tinies. Sixty years before, the founders of the 
constitution were ashamed of slavery, and tried to 
hide it away under obscure phrases from history 
and the public opinion of the world. Now, ™"-- 



minis- 



62 THE HALE STATUE. 

ters ol' the gospel imblushiiig-ly defended it. The 
presence of slavery had of course subjugated the 
Southern churches — and the ^N^orth had largely 
followed suit under the stimulus of the commercial 
greed that occupied the pews. Mrs. Stowe's satire 
upon the clergy was warranted by the " South-side 
Views " so plentifully served up to us, and by the 
overworking of the texts in which Canaan was 
cursed, and Onesimus sent back by Paul to his 
master Philemon. Even Dr. Channing's society 
deserted him in the later years of his life on ac- 
count of his anti-slavery views. 

During this awful time, while the republic was 
writhing under its ]!^essus's shirt of slavery, goad- 
ing and irritating it at every step of its painful 
progress, cowards and time-servers w^ere lapping 
themselves in the comfortable assurance that slav- 
ery, being wrong, was a doomed institution — and 
in the conservative belief or the dastardly pretence 
that change Avas to come about solely by super- 
natural means, by slow spiritual influences proceed- 
ing from personal religion. And so we saw every- 
where around us that spirit of concession, the lack 
of moral firmness, the recreancy to principle, the 
abject submission to Southern usurpations, which 
invited constant aggression. During this period 
freedom was indeed under a ban at Washington. 
Adulation of the slave oligarchy was the fashion. 
To be a Free-Soil er was to be excluded from the 
common courtesies and privileges of the capital. 
All cabinet positions, all public offices, all com- 
mittees in the senate and house were held by pro- 
slavery men. An infamous code of morality, both 



UNVEILING CEKEMONIES. 63 

national and international, prevailed. Mr. Buchan- 
an boldly proclaimed in the Ostend manifesto that 
if Spain should refuse to sell Cuba to the United 
States, " then by every law, human and divine, we 
should be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we 
have the power." In the raids upon Cuba and Cen- 
tral America, the ill-concealed designs against 
Mexico, — then disorganized, disintegrating, and 
liable at any moment to fall into our hands under 
one pretence or another, — and the scarcely veiled 
purpose to establish a great continental slave 
empire, — in all these the perfidy and rapacity of 
the system, and its thirst for rapine and subjuga- 
tion were fully displayed; and in these acts how 
vividly we now see, as if on a canvas painted by 
lightning, all the black features of the moral mon- 
ster, which, in the war that followed, displayed the 
wild and frenzied ferocity, the desperate abandon 
of cruelty, which was seen in the reign of terror 
of the French regicides. 

IS^ever in our history, however, were all ap- 
pearances so deceptive as in this terrible decade 
when slavery was holding high carnival in the 
great republic, when it dominated society, and had 
seized upon every attribute of power in the govern- 
ment. There are those here who knew Washing- 
ton between 1850 and 1860. The star of slavery 
was at its zenith, and as it began to descend to its 
setting, it lit up the western horizon with unwont- 
ed brilliancy. One saw its characteristic pride, its 
patrician charm of manners, its stately elegance of 
forms and ceremonies. But these were only a 
meretricious gilt of hospitality and courtesy. 



64 THE HALE STATUE. 

shrouding the darkest designs that ever lurked in 
the heart of a dominant class. As the Count de 
Segur said of France in the day of her approach- 
ing doom, " the old social edifice was undermined, 
although there was no slightest sign of its ap- 
proaching fall." 

There lay latent there the revolution, to be pre- 
cipitated by its own madness indeed, but a revolu- 
tion surcharged with the dormant energies of lib- 
erty, — revolution, which the Due de Broglie calls 
" that delicate and dreadful right which slumbers 
at the feet of all human institutions, as their sad 
and final safeguard." The slave oligarchy, like a 
man smitten with mortal disease but thinking him- 
self in perfect health, was never fuller of arrogance, 
of fire,. of the pride that goeth before a fall. Wash- 
ington was full of such characters as only appear 
in a society on the brink of perishing, — its Masons 
and Slidells, its Davises and Footes, its Soules and 
Brookses, and Wigfalls. But let us thank God 
for the irrepressible instincts of every institution at 
war with the social order. Slavery was a Philis- 
tine that could not keep the peace. Conscious 
that it could only live by extending itself, it was 
ever aiming at new conquests. It overreached it- 
self. Encroachment after encroachment, outrage 
upon outrage followed, till at length, under the 
faithful resistance of a few men, of whom John P. 
Hale was the pioneer, the question of slavery be- 
came flagrant and omnipresent. It met men at 
every turn in debate, in some form or other it min- 
gled in every discussion of fact or principle, and 
finally became the sole issue to be tried on the 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 65 

battle-field of American politics. The delicate 
silence, the bated breath with which " the peculiar 
institution " had been regarded, gave way to the 
open discussions of congress, of the pulpit awak- 
ened to its high office, of the press, and of the 
hustings all over the land. Its supposed sacred- 
ness and immunity from criticism were things of 
the past, ^o longer was this gangrened sore, this 
leprous stain, shielded from public gaze by the 
denial of the right of petition, of liberty of debate, 
or by a profound unconsciousness, or indifference, 
or the trembling fears of those who profited by a 
political or commercial alliance with slave-holders 
— that mercantile class which Burke described as 
" snuffing with delight the cadaverous scent of 
lucre." 

'Nor was the time without other hopeful signs. 
The wheat was getting sifted from the chaff. The 
Wliig party became defunct in 1852, and the 
Democratic party, under its heavy load, was totter- 
ing to its fall. The Conscience "Whigs were being- 
differentiated from the Cotton Whigs, and Sew- 
ard, Adams, and Palfrey, Sumner and Wilson, 
Allen and Dana, appeared, while Chase and 
Banks, Wilmot and Grow, Kantoul and Boutwell, 
answered back from the Democratic ranks, and 
took their places in the line that was being formed 
against slavery. And so, as the end of this decade 
approached, over which slavery was to plunge in- 
to a yawning abyss, the clouds that had been gath- 
ering on the horizon began to overspread and 
blacken the political sky. The air was over- 
charged with electricity. The day of retribution 



66 THE HALE STATUE. 

was at hand, and we stood in the vestibule of the 
rebellion. But when the sky darkened and the 
storm came on, such had been the charity, the for- 
bearance, and the love for his whole country of 
the first anti-slavery senator, that he could with a 
])erfect conscience say with the parliamentary Gen- 
eral Waller, " The great God who is the searcher 
of my heart knows with what reluctance I go upon 
this service, and with what perfect hatred I look 
upon a war without an enemy." He had stood, 
proclaiming the solemn warnings of history, for 
thirteen years in the United States senate. By 
masterly argument, again and again had he dem- 
onstrated the departure of the country from the 
principles of the constitution and of the men who 
made it, and in Ijurning eloquence shown that slav- 
ery was a barbarism and an anachronism. In vain 
were his appeals; but he, at least, had stood 

" Among innumerable false unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
His loyalty he kept, his love, liis zeal ; 
Nor number, nor example with him wrought 
To swei've from truth, or change his constant mind 
Though single. From amidst them forth he passed 
Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained 
Superior, nor of violence feared aught ; 
And with retorted scorn his back he tui-ned 
On those proud towers to swift destruction doomed." 

I would not willingly oftend even the shred of 
what was once conceived to be a party sentiment, 
by any word of indictment of American slavery, 
much less of the men, some of them honest and 
honored, who tried to save it in its fall. But if I 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 67 

rightly apprehend the present conditions of pnblic 
opinion, the horror of it and the hostihty to its ex- 
tension and aggrandizement which gnided the po- 
litical course of Mr. Hale, are now become the 
sovereign and universal principle of men and na- 
tions. We have cast slavery aside into the outer 
limbo of things we would fain forget. We have 
flung it into the dark dungeon of loathsome 
things; the foul heap of discarded relics of barba- 
rism and cruelty; the stakes, the racks, and thumb- 
screws; the Towers and Bastiles of the' bloody 
past of humanity, and there are none to-day so 
poor as to do it reverence. 

Political liberty is a development, and in reading 
history we mark the various stages of its evolution. 
The controversy of one generation becomes the 
settled doctrine of another, and the stone rejected 
of the builders becomes the head of the corner. I 
protest that I thresh over the old straw of contro- 
versy only because it is impossible to realize the 
stress of Mr. Hale's heroic warfare, and the sig- 
nificance of this memorial, without trying to un- 
derstand, as the present generation can only faint- 
ly do, the nature of that institution which it was 
the business of his life to destroy. Ah! dear 
friends, how many fearless young men, then in the 
flower of their strength, are now sleepiug beneath 
the sods of the battle-field! How many maimed 
and wounded! How many families still in mourn- 
ing! How many mothers, wives, lovers, in tears 
that will not cease to floAv! How many homes 
desolated never to be rebuilt! What a sad conflict 
between two sections of one great people! And what 



68 THE HALE STATUE. 

a price did the country pay for the peace it could 
have had for the asking' by listening to the voice 
of warning and of conscience uttered for the first 
time in the senate by JoHisr P. Hale ! 

During the war Mr. Hale stood unflinchingly by 
all those principles with which his name and fame 
were associated, and about which the battle raged 
for four long years. He bore a conspicuous part 
in all the debates of the senate during the great 
struggle, — in vindication of the principles and con- 
duct of jSTew England and ISTew Hampshire, in 
denunciation of the fugitive slave law and efforts 
for its repeal, in defence of himself as counsel in 
the fugitive slave cases in Boston, and in Decem- 
ber, 1860, he made an eloquent appeal for the 
Union, which he loved with a devotion far dee]:)er 
and warmer than that of those who had invoked 
its sacred authority in behalf of slavery for 
thirty years. As the contest progressed, and the 
black flag of slavery went down upon one after an- 
other of the bulwarks that had been erected for its 
defence in those sad years of its Quixotic blind- 
ness, lie had the satisfaction of helping to wipe out 
the black code of the District of Columbia, and 
abolishing slavery itself there in 1862. Towards 
the close of his senatorial career he took a joyous 
part in the last mig-hty blows against the slave 
system, which blotted it out forever from our 
escutcheon — the emancipation of the slaves of reb- 
els, the rejjeal of the fugitive slave law, and, final- 
ly, the adoption of the 13th amendment to the con- 
stitution, which prohibited slavery forever there- 
after by the organic law of the land, amid the 



UNVEII.ING CEREMONIES. 69 

jubilations and fervent thanksgivings to God of the 
slave, and of every lovei- of liberty the world over. 

We are apt perhaps to lose sight of Mr. Hale's 
great merits as a general legislator in the splendor 
of his services for lil)erty. But a study of the 
public records will disclose his vigorous attention 
to the general business which came before cono-ress, 
in which he labored with a tireless activity, an om- 
nipresent vigilance, and an inflexible persistency of 
purpose on every great question of administration 
as well as innumerable matters of detail. He par- 
ticipated in nearly every debate that took place in 
the senate, and was ever found the consistent advo- 
cate of a well defined administrative policy. He 
was an old-fashioned economist. Like Fox, he 
might perhaps have boasted his ignorance of the 
*' dismal science" of political economy; but of the 
economies and frugalities of the truly republican 
house-keeping of our early days he was an unswer- 
ving devotee. He was invariably for reform, for 
the reduction of expenses, the correction of abuses, 
the curtailment of extravagance, the lopping-off of 
superfluities and sinecures, of perquisites and ex- 
cesses in official emoluments. He was against con- 
structive charges and salaries, jobbery, and profli- 
gacy of ever}^ kind. He was against aggression 
and against spoliation; he was the implacable foe 
of monopolies, of unjust claims, of extortionate raids 
upon the treasury, of frauds and corruptions of 
every kind. He was the friend and champion of 
the laborer on the public works, the private soldier, 
and the common sailor. The Congressional Globe 
for twenty years is replete with his untiring efforts 



70 THE HALE STATUE. 

for the masses against the classes. He returned 
daily to the ever recurring struggle on these lines 
with a vigilance, a courage, a boldness, and fertility 
of resource admirable in the last degree, and in un- 
changing fidelity to these principles was never 
found wanting for sixteen years in the United 
States senate. ^NTot the least of his titles to praise 
is found in the brave stand he took against the 
corruptions of the navy department, and his fearless 
independence in exposing maladministration in his 
own party, at a time when by so doing he subjected 
himself to the criticism of some friends, though he 
supported every step of Mr. Lincoln's administration 
in putting down the Rebellion. His activity as a 
senator dift'used itself over all the cjuestions of his 
day: — the homestead law, internal improvements, 
foreign and domestic commerce, the tariff", the army 
and navy, education, the judiciary, patents, banks, 
appropriations, the civil lists, pensions, public lands, 
sub-treasury, printing, the census, the franking 
privilege, — these all felt his touch. The topics he 
discussed embraced the whole range of our foreign 
and domestic relations, oui' trade and administration 
in every variety of form. His views were always 
clear, practical, comprehensive. His logic, wit, 
and humor, his tenacious memory of legislative prec- 
edents, his old-fashioned frugalities, his apt illus- 
trations, his parHamentary skill, which justified 
General Cass in calling him " a most adroit parHa- 
mentary tactician,'' — all these were brought into full 
requisition in the general business of the sessions. 
He was not a man of one idea. He was an idealist 
indeed, but no idealist ever had a uiore stalwart 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 71 

common sense, or less of the visionary about him; 
and, though he was not always right, no public man 
ever took so decided a part on a great variety of 
subjects and made fewer mistakes. Despite his 
anomalous position as a senator, he accomplished 
many things in general legislation which entitle him 
to public gratitude, and was frustrated by the extrav- 
ao-aiit tendencies of his time in others which would 

o 

have been still more beneficial to the country, had 
it been wise enough to follow his lead. He was 
the most typical Jeffersonian Democrat of his time. 
Mr. Hale was not much of a party man. He was 
not one of those, — 

"Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind 
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind." 

He was 

*' For a patriot too cool, for a drudge disobedient, 
And too proud of the right to pursue the expedient." 

Political ties always sat loosely upon him. He 
used party connections to subserve purposes, and 
when he thought his duty lay in another direction 
he burst asunder the partisan leading-strings with- 
out compunction. He was neither a party leader 
nor a party follower. He was not pliant; his mind 
was simple and direct; he wanted policy, and was 
no more tolerant of wrong in his own party than in 
any other. Hated by the enemies of liberty on the 
one hand, he was assailed by zealots of freedom on 
the other for his conciliatory temper, his freedom 
from political acerbity, and his refusal to endorse 
projects of disunion or any other extravagances. 



72 THE HALE STATUE. 

A sound discretion, and even a wise conservatisni 
governed him. He loved to travel Sftjier antiquas 
vias, and the precedents of Anglo-Saxon freedom 
were the guiding stars of his political life. Unwill- 
ing to go all length, and too independent to submit 
to dictation, he represented no party, no group 
even, — he was no exponent of others; he was a type 
of himself. Without affecting airs of independence, 
he was the most truly independent man in America. 
Those of us who loved him and would stand guard 
over his fame, are not pained to hear, as we some- 
times do, that he knew how to behave in the mi- 
nority much better than in the majority. 

Mr. Hale's general political views were broad and 
well defined and coordinated, and gave unity of 
purpose to his political life. His creed at bottom 
was embodied by Burke in his definition of the 
principles of true politics as " those of morality en- 
larged," or, in other words, that in politics " noth- 
ing is right that is not rigJit, just that is wot just ^ 
He had none of that revolutionary spirit which 
rudely breaks with all the traditions of the past. If 
there were contradictions in our institutions, he was 
content to tolerate them till the general conscience 
and intelligence should be awakened to such anom- 
alies, and make those institutions homogeneous. He 
was no innovator or ftmatic. He stood by the fabric 
of the constitution, and the Union he reverenced 
with a fervor not surpassed even T)y Webster himself. 
In this respect, in his willingness, often expressed, 
even to abide by and carry out fairly, honestly, and 
in good faith what were termed the compromises of 
the constitution, he differed toto coelo from Garrison, 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 73 

Phillips, and others of the abolitionists. Let us do 
justice to those from whom Mr. Hale differed in this 
respect. Such was their view of the pro-slavery 
clauses of the constitution that they indignantly 
spurned them, and fled for refuge to that " higher 
law " which Mr. Webster in derision said '' soared 
an eagle's flight above the tops of the Alleghanies." 
They dealt only with the abstract question of right, 
claimed a discharge of conscience from all complicity 
with slavery, and demanded an immediate and un- 
conditional manumission . 

It is still an unsettled question whether the efibrts 
of statesmen like Mr. Hale were hampered by im- 
practicable theories of doctrinaires who renounced 
political action as unplying allegiance to a constitu- 
tion which recognized and sanctioned slavery. 
Many regarded these scruples as puerile, and a hin- 
drance to the progress of the cause within constitu- 
tional and legal lines. There was, however, but 
little danger to liberty from those who refused to 
obey the fugitive slave law. History is full of 
proofs that a disobedience of the statutes of men 
may imply a higher and deeper reverence for the 
laws of God. Admitting the danger of leaving 
citizens, each for himself, to judge of the law and 
their obligation to obey it, yet those who are so 
tremblingly afraid of stranding the ship of state on 
this Scylla, should remember the awful dangers of 
the Charybdis on the other side, and that no gov- 
ernment worthy to live was ever wrecked by those 
who obeyed the behests of conscience. 

We are not here to-day to cast a doubt upon those 
men who formed the American Anti-Slavery soci- 



74 THE HALE STATUE. 

ety, which Mr. Frederick Doughiss calls " the most 
efficient generator of anti-slavery sentiment in the 
country," and whose heroism has given them an 
enduring place in history. But, Avhether it be to 
his credit or discredit, it is certainly true that Mr. 
Hale had little or no sympathy with extremists; 
made no assaults upon church or state; stood aloof 
from all schemes of disunion, and discoimtenanced 
every thought of disloyalty. This was not his line 
of thinking or of action ; he proposed to act politi- 
cally in the Union, by circumscribing slavery and 
pressing it to death by a cordon of free states. Mr. 
Hale took the ground that the constitution was 
essentially an anti-slavery document. The Buffalo 
convention of 1848 admitted that slavery in the 
states was protected by the constitution, and the 
Free-Soil party had no intention to attack it where 
it existed under the sanction of law. The Free-Soil 
convention at Pittsburg in 1852 neither raised nor 
lowered the standard; and its lineal successor, the 
Republican party, did not at all grapple with eman- 
cipation in the states, — not even in the District of 
Columbia, — its whole policy looked simply to its 
circumscription. But the event shows hoAV urgent 
and hoAV indispensaljle Avas the need of a Free-Soil 
party. That want Mr. Hale and others supplied, 
no doubt holding, in solution at least, the faith 
which Mr. Lincoln afterwards so tersely formulated 
in the memorable words: "If a house be divided 
against itself it cannot stand. I believe this gov- 
ernment cannot permanently endure half slave and 
half free." They had found the heel of Achilles; 
they had divined the weakness of slavery, and the 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 75 

essential conditions of its progress and immnnity. 
Then only the great problem approached its solu- 
tion when " no more slavery extension" became the 
watchword of a distinct political organization, draw- 
ing to itself more and more the humane sympathies 
and the generous ardor of the world. 

I have said that Mr. Hale stood by the constitu- 
tion. So thoroughly loyal, indeed, was he to that 
instrument, that amid the thunder and agony of 
the Rebellion, he parted company with his political 
friends on the confiscation bill, which he opposed 
because it was not in accordance with the constitu- 
tion. Said he: "I want constitutional liberty left 
to us when the war is over. Constitutional liberty 
is the great boon for which we are striving, and we 
must see to it that, in our zeal to put down the Re- 
bellion, we do not trample on that; and, that when 
the war is over, and our streamers float in the air, 
in that breeze also may still float the old flag, and 
over this regenerated country may still sway a 
sacred and unviolated constitution, in the faithful 
maintenance of which in the hour of our peril and 
our trial we have not faltered." 

But he was no priest of the constitution. His 
divinations were at another shrine, even that of 
liberty. We have had such a priest. He stands 
there, [pointing to Mr. Webster's statue] overlook- 
ing us with his awful solemnity, his brow of Jove, 
and all the majesty of his god-like presence to-day. 

But with Mr. Hale the constitution was no fetich. 
He loved it for what it Avas, and as he understood 
it. He could reverence it only for what it meant; 
and, if shown that it meant the perpetual domina- 



76 THE HALE STATUE. 

tion of one race or class and the bondage of another, 
he would have looked upon it as the Ijiherator 
proclaimed it in 1844:, as " a covenant with death, 
and an agreement with hell." If it meant that, John 
P. Hale could no more have obeyed and endured it 
than could Pym or Hampden the star chaml^er, the 
collection of ship money, or the exactions of arbi- 
trary prerogative, or Samuel Adams the enforce- 
ment of the stamp act, Luther the sale of indul- 
gences, or Mirabeau the perpetual dominance of the 
Bourbons. His was a higher and nol)ler interpre- 
tation of the organic law of our fathers; and, claim- 
ing shelter under its broad segis, he stood forth in 
defiance of the delusion of his time to assert the 
essential brotherhood of man, and his right to the 
liberties formulated in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. In other days, a century or two before, this 
intrepid stand in the face of power would have sub- 
jected him to a glorious imprisonment or to the 
block. But truth was already emancipated from 
the grosser forms of tyranny. Who can doubt 
that even if the old means of extirpating freedom of 
thought had still existed, John P. Hale would have 
taken his life in his hand, and proclaimed inifalter- 
ingly the faith that was in him, like John Pym, 
who, in the crisis of English liberty, cried that he 
" would much rather suifer for speaking the truth 
than that the truth should suffer for want of his 
speaking." 

Those are rightly accounted great who blaze out 
new pathways for the race. Says Fronde, " Those 
whom the Avorld agrees to call great, are those who 
have done or produced something of permanent 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 77 

value to humanit}^" Do any of our American 
statesmen better answer this requirement? In a 
great crisis his was the initiative. He grappled 
single-handed and alone with the greatest problem 
and the highest duty of his time. Slavery lay like 
a night-mare upon the republic, weakening, poison- 
ing, degrading it, arresting its development, stifling- 
its liberty. And Avho, we may well ask, aroused it 
from its torpor, from the body of its death? "Who 
so emphatically as he gave the word for the resur- 
rection of the true national spirit? It was he, in- 
deed, who impressed the heart and brain of his gen- 
eration, who pronounced the right word at the right 
moment, and uttered it in accents that burned it into 
the imaginations and feelings of millions. When 
other men called great were dallying and compro- 
mising, and striking hands with an evil with which 
there should have been no truce and no terms, he 
assailed it in its stronghold, and carried its strong- 
est outwork. He first attuned the voice of a state 
to the rhythm of liberty, and from his lips first 
sounded the high note of freedom in the United 
States senate. And in that great body, where me- 
diocrity cannot for any length of time seize the palm 
of excellence, Avhere no pretence can escape detect- 
ion or weakness pass for strength, he maintained 
his position triumphantly against all assailants for 
sixteen years. He mingled in all the contentions 
of the most tempestuous period of our history; one 
after another he broke lances with all the great ac- 
tors on the national scene and was never discomfited. 
He has left in the public records a body of utter- 
ances worthy of the study of after-tunes, made un- 



78 THE HALE STATUE. 

der every variety of circumstances, under insult and 
contumely, under taunt and provocation; yet no- 
where, on his part, is there any recrimination, any 
appeal to passion, to unworthy prejudice, to unman- 
ly feeling; but everywhere and throughout a genu- 
ine sincerity, a noble philanthropy, a sublime enthu- 
siasm for humanity, and an unswerving faith in its 
ultimate destiny. You shall find in all his impass- 
ioned appeals not one doubt cast upon the reality of 
human progress, or the eventual triumph of those 
principles which had asserted their control of his 
political life. 

From a recent review of this whole series of 
speeches and votes in and out of the national arena, 
I am impressed with the conviction that there is no 
more honorable and conspicuous record in American 
public life. It is a record marked by a high ethical 
tone, by conscientious conviction, by fidelity to truth, 
l)y a standard of jDublic duty modelled upon the 
best traditions of Anglo-Saxon freedom, and by 
maxims drawn from a wide study and clear reading 
of the history of human liberty and progress in all 
ages. I go further. He was the man for his time 
and mission. He had a message for his generation, 
and, as nnich as any man ever was in political an- 
nals, was providentially sent and equipped for the 
great tournament in which he played his part. And 
I add the further belief that no intelligent, reflective, 
and unprejudiced mind, conversant personally with 
the events of that time, can rise from the study of 
his public eff'orts and the story of his life, Avithout the 
conviction that no other public man in America was 
equal to what he did, — that none had the peculiar 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 79 

qualities in so high a degree to fill the great post to 
which he was called as the first anti-slaveiy senator. 

Engaged in the work of statesmanship, which 
largely diverted him from the studies and practice 
of his profession, Mr. Hale was still a most distin- 
guished lawyer. He occasionally appeared in the 
courts of New Hampshire throughout his career; 
and there was no time after 1840 when his services 
were not sought in cases of the highest importance, 
and when he was not esteemed to hold a place as 
an advocate in the front rank of the profession. In 
1851 he was engaged as senior counsel, with such 
lawyers as Dana and Ellis, in the argument of the 
slave rescue cases in Boston. In his recent book 
Mr. Dana speaks of him as having argued the case 
of Lewis Hayden nobly and with passages of great 
eloquence. It was in this case, in the defence of 
the rescuers of Shadrach, that occurred that won- 
derful burst of eloquence : 

"John Debree claims that he owns Shadrach. 
Owns what? Owns a man! Suppose, gentlemen, 
John Debree should claim an exclusive right to the 
sunshine, the moon, or the stars! Would you sanc- 
tion the claim by your verdict? And yet, gentle- 
men, the stars shall fall from heaven, the moon 
shall grow old and decay, the sun shall fail to give 
its light, the heavens shall be rolled together as a 
scroll, but the soul of the despised and hunted 
Shadrach shall live on with the life of God himself ! 
I wonder if John Debree will claim that he owns 
him then ! " 

In one of his letters Mr. Sumner said that Mr. 
Hale had said many things better than any of the 



80 THE HALE STATUE. 

rest had been able to say them, and referred to this 
speech particularly as one that had been reported 
to him as worthy of Curran or Ersldne. 

Still later he was leading counsel in the defence 
of Theodore Parker, who stood indicted for ob- 
structing the fugitive slave law process in the case 
of Anthony Burns. The trial came on in April, 
1855, and attracted universal interest. The indict- 
ment was quashed by the court upon the argument 
of Mr. Hale's associates, and so odious was the pros- 
ecution that the representatives of the government 
were only too eager to hide themselves from public 
scorn by entering a noUf 'proseqai in all other cases. 

But Mr. Parker afterward published a noble de- 
fence, which he dedicated " to John Parker Hale 
and Charles Mayo Ellis, Magnanimous Lawyers, 
for their labors in a noble profession," and speaks of 
them as " generous advocates of humanity, equal- 
ling the glories of Holt andErskine, of Mackintosh 
and Romilly, in their eloquent and fearless defence 
of truth, right, and love." 

In this " Defence " Mr. Parker also refers to 
Mr. Hale as " the noble advocate of justice and 
defender of humanity," and as " renewing the 
virtuous glories of his illustrious namesake, Sir 
Matthew Hale," — and, again, of " the masterly 
eloquence which broke out from the great human 
heart of my friend, Mr. Hale, and rolled like the 
Mississippi in its width, its depth, its beauty, and 
its continuous and unconquerable strength." 

To those who knew Mr. Parker, himself an ora- 
tor, philanthropist, and one of the grandest charac- 
ters of his age, such tributes to Mr. Hale's genius 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 81 

are an offering of no small valne, and not withont 
a deep significance. 

The earliest efi"orts of Mr. Hale annoimced him 
an oratoi- of nnnsnal force and power. Even before 
practice had given him a national repntation, he 
was endowed highly with the gift of persnasion and 
a captivating charm of manner. He possessed in 
an nncommon degree many of the external advan- 
tages of a popnlar speaker, — an imposing person, 
a countenance of extraordinary manly beauty and 
nobleness, a well modulated and resonant voice, a 
prompt command of words, a perfect command of 
his temper. His language was fluent; his manner, 
easy, confident, unaffected; his delivery, impressive; 
his self-possession, perfect. His eloquence was 
spontaneous, rather than the fruit of patient labor. 
It yielded to no rules of art; it was clogged and en- 
cumbered by no useless impedimenta of learning or 
philosophy; but it came like a fountain bursting 
from the earth ; it was the warm effluence of a sym- 
pathetic heart, a fervid soul, a deep humanity, find- 
ing utterance on the tongue, inspiring every accent, 
and informing every feature. 

In the presentation of a cause to a popular audi- 
ence he was wellnigh irresistible. His clear and 
copious diction, his imperturbable good nature, his 
fairness and generosity, his apt stories, his manifest 
sincerity and disinterestedness cleared all obstacles 
from his path and gave him a power before great 
popular assemblies in which he had but few rivals. 
Traditions still live of his triumphs as a popular 
orator before great masses of people under the open 
sky, which alone seemed to give room for the full 



82 THE HALE STATUE. 

play of his faculties, as it did to O'Connell, as 
well as those forensic contests where verdicts were 
charmed away from the leaders of the bar by the 
sorceries of his eloquent tongue. 

He was the most natural of orators. His best 
efforts were short, impassioned improvisations, ap- 
parently without study or forethought. He did not 
torment invention for words. He aifected no the- 
atrical attitudes, and was little solicitous for either 
diction or manner, but was content to grasp strong- 
ly, and present forcibly and earnestly, the sub- 
stance of his argument, and always with a definite 
purpose in view. 

His speeches underwent no revision. He never 
cared to give them the last polish of his pen. 
They were dashed oft' with a careless and negligent 
ease, and were extemporary in the sense of having 
never been composed in set phrase, or laboriously 
fashioned into periods. He scattered these gems 
of speech like a king whose resources were as 
capricious as inexhaustible. He was thoughtless of 
their fate, and now they have to be laboriously 
hunted out from the columns of the Congressional 
Glohe, or of fugitive newspapers. But they Avill 
repay the search. If they are not marked by liter- 
ary finish, they are instinct with fervent earnest- 
ness and impetuosity. Everything was done by him 
without apparent exertion. His efforts seemed to 
flow from an exuberant fountain, and bore no marks 
of labor or tension of mind. 

Without any pretensions to profound learning, 
Mr. Hale had those immediate intellectual re- 
sources that give readiness in debate. To the 



UISIVEILING CEKEiMONIES. 83 

very marked combination of parliamentary talents 
already named, he added a prodigious memory, 
holding his facts firmly in hand, and drawn up 
ready for instant mobilization. It would be a mis- 
take to suppose him lacking in mental power; he 
was never wanting, when occasion demanded, to 
the logical support of his positions. Although he 
was never very patient of laborious research, nor 
inclined to 

" Scorn delights and live laborious days," 

yet his constitutional learning, especially in all those 
departments requisite to the defence of personal 
liberty, was ample; but what is better, the learning- 
he had was aglow with vitality, always at the com- 
mand of a tenacious memory, and warmed by his 
eager blood and intellectual vehemence. If any 
doubt his great ability, even when stripped of the 
glamour of oratory, let him carefully read his 
speeches on the constitutional status of slavery, the 
Dred Scott decision, the supreme court, and the re- 
peal of the fugitive slave law. He sustained him- 
self with ease in the senate in competition with the 
giants of debate, and did all with such good nature 
as to provoke no hatred or personal violence. He 
went in and out unarmed amid the murderous as- 
sassins of slavery, holding aloft the banner of free- 
dom, " still full high advanced," till Chase and 
Sumner, Seward and Wade came and interlocked 
their shields with his, and the invincible phalanx of 
Liberty was never broken. 

I am at a loss to compare John P. Hale with any 



84 THE HALE STATUE. 

other orator. In the spontaneous and easy phiy of 
extraordinary natural powers he was not unlike 
Fox, the great English orator and statesman. iSTor 
was he unlike that greatest debater that ever lived 
in the vehement rush and torrent of his declama- 
tion; and hearing him sometimes, when he rose 
almost above competition in bursts of indescribable 
power, we seemed to realize Porson's meaning 
when he said, — " Mr. Pitt conceives his sentences 
before he utters them. Mr. Fox throws himself into 
the middle of his and leaves it to God Almighty 
to get him out again." So it was with Mr. Hale. 
He soared to the most adventurous heights of elo- 
quence; but, when you were trembling for his fall, 
he always came safely to earth again from the most 
daring flight, and alighted on his feet, the orator of 
conuuon sense, of shrewd mother-wit, of homely 
and commonplace illustration, as well as the emo- 
tional, kindling orator of enthusiasm, his heart on 
fire, and his lips touched with a divine flame. 

But, after all, there is in every great orator a 
something indescribable, a something peculiar to 
himself, which dififerentiates him from all others. 
Mr. Hale imitated no one, and was himself inimit- 
able, though he had studied the great orators of 
antiquity, and had kindled his torch at the altar 
of Chatham and Burke, Fox and Ersldne. His 
spontaneous style, not formed by extensive reading, 
and able to dispense with a critical literary knowl- 
edge, was not like that of Burke or Gladstone, but 
resembled more the splendid oratory of John Bright, 
an instrument capable of sounding all the depths of 
passionate emotion, of touching the deepest chords 



UNVEILlNCx C?:ilEMONIES. 85 

of human feeling-, and of lighting up the sentiments 
of freedom with unspeakable pathos and splendor. 

But if, as all its true devotees do, we ascribe to 
eloquence a heavenly origin, and give it that office 
which so wins our hearts, if we say that no man is 
ever a true orator without being the spokesman of 
some gi'eat cause, that God touches no man's lips 
with that celestial lire without intending thereby to 
burn up some giant wrong, how nobly does Mr. 
Hale fill the character! Who, in this sense, among 
all our historic Americans, was truer to his divine 
appointment than he? 

Mr. Hale was unique in this, that much of 
his eff'ectiveness as a speaker was due to his 
overflowing wit and humor. His quick percep- 
tions, genial temperament, and acute sense of the 
ludicrous made him a natural hiunorist. In repar- 
tee he was incomparable, and his apt and homely 
illustrative stories enlivened the United States 
senate for sixteen years. An ardent admirer of 
Mr. Hale most happily says, — " The jests which 
lightened his public addresses were not, however, 
without their disadvantages. They souictimes gave 
an impression of levity which formed no part of his 
character. As there is in art an ignoble and a 
noble grotesque, and in poetry a sardonic and a 
just yet not malignant satire, so there is in oratory 
a humor which degrades and another which 
attracts to uplift the hearer. This was the humor 
of our orator; like the wit of Lincoln, it was always 
serious in its application, an instrument for noble 
appeal or impressive illustration, a foil for grave 
discourse or earnest invocation." 



86 THE HALE STATUE. 

It would be pleasant to recall some of those 
saying's of bis wbicb so illustrated his good nat- 
ure and broad catholicity of spirit, Avhile they 
drove home some truth as no other means could. 
For instance, he compared statesmen who Avere 
afraid to oppose the Mexican War to the West- 
ern man who said he " got caught by opposing^ 
the last war, and he didn't mean to get caught 
again; he intended now to go for war, pestilence, 
and famine." 

Speaking of President Polk's back-down in the 
Oregon treaty, he said, " The president exhibited a 
Christian meekness in the full scriptural degree; 
but he did n't inherit the hlessing of the meek — he 
didn't get the land." 

He said, — " As to whether the Missouri com- 
promise had, as claimed, given peace to the coun- 
try, he didn't know how that might l3e, but he 
knew that it gave peace to the politicians who 
voted for it. It sent them down to their polit- 
ical graves, Avhere they have rested in peace ever 
since. It settled them, if it did n't settle the coun- 
try." 

Senator Westcott called him to order, but in- 
formed him that he meant nothing personal. Mr. 
Hale said, "' I am exceedingly obliged to the 
senator for his explanation. The question of order 
has been raised but twice since I have had the 
honor of a seat in the senate, and each time it was 
raised by the senator from Florida upon the sena- 
tor from ]N^ew Hampshire. That satisfies me that 
there is nothing personal about the matter." 

Mr. Clemens, in a violent speech, asserted that 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 87 

the Union was already dissolved. Mr. Hale good- 
hiimoredly replied that it would be very comforting 
to many timid people to find that the dissolution of 
the Union had taken place and they did n't know 
it. " Once in my life," said he, " in the capacity of 
a justice of the peace, I was called on to officiate in 
uniting a couple in the ])onds of matrimony. I 
asked the man if he would take the woman to he 
his wedded wife. He replied, ' To be sure; I came 
here to do that very thing.' I then put the ques- 
tion to the woman, — whether she would have the 
man for her husband, and, when she answered in 
the affirmative, I told them that they were husband 
and wife. She looked up with apparent astonish- 
ment, and inquired, 'Is that all?' 'Yes,' said I, 
'that is all.' 'Well,' said she, 'it is n t such a 
mighty affair as I expected it to be, after all.' If 
this Union is already * dissolved, it has produced 
less commotion in the act than I expected." 

In reply to Mr. Calhoun's complaint that the 
Missouri compromise had disturbed the equilibrium 
of the country, he said that it had disturbed no 
equilibrium but that of the :N'orthern representa- 
tives who voted for it; that it threw them entirely 
off their equilibrium, which they hadn't regained 
yet, and never would. 

General Cass, in December, 1856, hoped God, in 
His mercy, would interpose in this slavery question 
before it was too late. Mr. Hale interjected, " He 
came pretty near it in the last election," whereupon 
General Cass was greatly shocked at the levity of so 
referring to the Supreme Being. 

Garrett Davis introduced a resolution that " ^o 



88 THE HALE STATUE. 

n(!gTO, or person whose mother or grandmother was 
a negro, should be a citizen of the United States." 
Mr. Hale said, if in order, he wonld like to amend 
bj putting in his great-grandmother also. Of 
course Mr. Davis was highly indignant at such 
buffoonery on a sacred subject. 

The records are full of such pleasantries as 
these, which had a cutting edge of truth, but 
contributed not a little to allay the irritation and 
soften the asperities of debate. But Mr. Hale 
never indulged in personalities. He was a gen- 
tleman from the heart out. There was no bit- 
terness in his jests. He threw no poisoned arrows. 
He struck without hatred or malignity, and his 
blows left no ranklings and no immedicable wounds 
behind. 

" His wit in the combat, as gentle as bright. 
Ne'er carried a lieart stain away on its blade." 

Consequently, when he retired from the senate, he 
had as warm friends south as north of the line, and 
among them was one who had learned to hold him 
in a high personal esteem, the learned and eloquent 
Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi. 

But little remains to be added to the record of 
Mr. Hale's public life. In March, 1865, he was aj)- 
pointed, by Mr. Lincoln, minister to Spain. This 
was a service suited neither to his temper, his taste, 
nor his capacity. He had cultivated no drawing- 
room arts ; he knew nothing of the assiduities of 
ante-chambers ; he was incapable of intrigue or 
flattery ; he was as free from servility as from 
arrogance ; he had not merely a siDcculative lik- 



UNVEILINC CEKEMONIES. 89 

ing for, but he was a practical exemplification of, 
democratic principles. The oi-atoi'ical tempera- 
ment, which he possessed in so high a degree, 
harmonizes not with the cunning or even the 
unsleeping and tireless discretion of diplomacy, 
whose methods were foreign to the guileless frank- 
ness of that noble nature. 

In the heat of the hour, when Mr. Hale broke 
from allegiance to his party, and espoused the 
cause of the slave, he was the object of ungenerous 
imputations and even rancorous abuse. But party 
feelings seldom survive the generation they control, 
and the little hatred that had been mingled with 
these accusations had been outlived. But, 

'• Be thou as chaste as ice, and pure as snow, 
Thou shalt not escape calumny." 

In his new position abroad, his ignorance of the 
language of the country, and the amiability of his 
character, involved him temporarily in the toils of 
an adventurer. He had what some one has called 
*' a want of clear sharp-sightedness as to others," 
and was exposed constantly to the arts of schemers 
and self-seekers. The mistakes of his life, which 
subjected him to unfounded aspersions, all arose 
out of his ingenuous and generous trust in others 
who were miworthy of his confidence. He became 
for a brief moment the victim of the calumnies of an 
imworthy sulxn-dinate, who had compromised him, 
as he had attempted the ruin of his predecessors in 
the same way, — one of those Jesuitical reptiles that 
infest the diplomatic purlieus of Europe, and wrig- 
gle in and out of the ante-chambers of royalty. 



90 THE HALE .STATUE. 

For a time, as Burke said, " the hunt of obloquy 
pursued him with full cry." The shafts fell really 
harmless at his feet, l3ut the injustice done him tem- 
porarily by some venomous newspapers emliittered 
his own last days, and clouds the memory of his 
i'riends. 

I disdain to enter npon the vindication of the in- 
tegrity of a man who was careless, generons, of 
simple habits, who neglected his own interests, was 
indifferent to money, and who with abundant oppor- 
tunities to enrich himself, had he been base enough 
to use them, neither made nor spent, nor left a for- 
tune, — the man who was content to tread a thorny 
road; whose life was one of ])lain living and high 
thinking for himself and his family; whose face, one 
of the noblest I have ever looked upon, was itself a 
refutation of calunmy; whose heart was as open a& 
the day; and whose integrity, shining like a star in 
the dark night of our country's trial, was "the im- 
mediate jewel of his soul." 

But I rest his exoneration not there — not upon 
such moral certainties as triumphantly satisfy his 
friends: but his defence, if defence were needed,, 
may be i*ested upon legal proofs that will con- 
vince any court or jury of his absolute innocence. 
I have examined the whole case, and others oi^ 
more authority than I, and I aver that the evi- 
dence against John P. Hale of any conscious dere- 
liction of duty, anywhere, or at any time, is lighter 
and more inisubstantial than the summer zephyrs 
that float among these tree-tops over our heads; 
and that, according to all the canons of evidence 
in such inquiries, in that blameless life, public and 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 91 

private, there was nothing in the face of which he 
might not hold his head erect before the bar of God! 

His career was drawing to a close. He remained 
abroad five years, the last being spent with his fam- 
ily in travel on the continent, and in the vain hope 
of recrniting his shattered energies. His health, 
never good since the ISTational Hotel sickness in 
1857, of which he was a victim, had now become 
seriously impaired, and he came home in 1870 with 
a broken constitution. He was welcomed on his 
return with formal receptions by his neighbors at 
home and hj the legislature, of wliich a conqueror 
might have been proud. He lingered with us for 
three years afterwards, but with strength gone past 
recovery, and one ill following another made his 
hist days painful ones. As one of his eulogists 
grandly said, " He was like a war-frigate which lies 
in port in peaceful times, its mighty armament and 
its scarred bulwarks only suggestive of stormy days 
when its ports were up, and its great guns dealt 
havoc upon the foe." 

At length, on the 19th of November, 1873, the 
worn-out gladiator of freedom " fell on sleep," and 
joined the great company of his co-workers in all 
ages — the servant of God passed to " where beyond 
these voices there is peace." 

I have spoken mainly of the public life of Mr. 
Hale. But to his friends there seems something 
lacking in the sketch of a man so much loved and 
admired, without analyzing his character a little 
more closely, and drawing a portrait of somewhat 
warmer coloring, as befits his noble nature. Some- 
times a nearer view of public men diminishes the 



92 THE HALE STATUE. 

admiratioH and reverence we feel at a distance. 
ISTot so with Mr. Hale. His dearest place was in 
the hearts of his friends. Those who knew him in 
his domestic privacy, or where the statesman was 
sunk in the social interconrse of friendship, most 
unreservedly loved him, and speak in fullest admi- 
ration of his virtues and his genius. His morals 
were pure without austerity, and his life exem- 
plary by its observance of every detail of duty, 
whether it involved the active exertion of influ- 
ence for good, or abstinence from everything evil 
and not of good report. He Avas exempt from 
social and personal vices. In 1852 he said in the 
senate, " I have not tasted a drop of spirits foi- 
twenty years," and he never afterwards departed 
from that principle. 

In religion he was a liberal. He was averse to 
external ceremonies, and his love of personal inde- 
pendence made him jealous of every kind of eccle- 
siasticism. His religion was a matter between him- 
self and his God. As Burnet said of Sydney, " He 
was a Christian, but a Christian in his own way." 
Let none doubt for a moment, however, the essen- 
tial reverence of spirit of this free-thinking soul. If 
ever man had the Unseen but Indwelling Presence, 
if ever man was governed by those great invisible 
moral sanctions that we are wont to call the laws of 
God, if ever man had the faith which connected 
him with powers above him, l^ut Avhich he felt work- 
ing through him, it was John P. Hale. Sweetness, 
and light, and love, were indeed his creed and his 
practice. He went forth to the duties of life " as 
ever in his great Taskmaster's eye," — 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 93 

" He went in the strength of dependence 

To tread where his Master trod, 
To gather and knit together 

Tlie family of God ; 
With a conscience freed from hardens, 

And a heart set free from care, 
To minister to every one. 

Always and everywhere." 

Endowed with noble gifts, Mr. Hale had what 
Avas greater, an aggressively noble character. He 
never cringed to power. He never sold himself for 
a vulgar or temporary applause. He was never 
false to his convictions; and he always liad convic- 
tions. He didn't crawl and sneak through the 
world — he never lapped himself in that comfortable 
indifference to the moral law which is the devil's 
easy chair in which he hypnotizes the human con- 
science for a base acquiescence in wrong and 
iniquity. 

His principles were rooted in his character, 
and had an organic growth, — and he lived as if he 
had taken holy orders in their service. He Avas 
essentially a reformer, and had the courage to 
stand alone, which is the first requisite of leader- 
ship in a great cause. The blandishments of power 
liad no attractions, and no terrors for him. He 
might have sat at the right hand of the throne, but 
disdainfully rejected the temptation, and held fast 
to his principles and his integrity. He perilled his 
political career to resist the further advance of 
slavery. His courage was superb; he never 
quailed before the face of man. He would have 
been equal to martyrdom, and would have gone to 
the block saying with Sydney, " Grant that I may 



94 THE HALE STATUE. 

die glorifying Ttiee that at the Last Thou hast jjer- 
mitted me to be singled out as a witness of Thy 
truth, and, even by the confession of my opposers. 
Cor that old cause in which I was from my youth 
engaged." 

To him the service of liberty was neither prosaic 
nor perfunctory. It gave zest to his life. A strain 
of high devotion runs like a nerve of fire through 
all his public efi:orts. He had deeply pondered 
upon Sir Henry Yane, Algernon Sydney, Pym and 
Hampden, Bradshaw and Henry Martin, and the 
great judges Avho had stood for the liberty of the 
subject against kingly prerogative; and no man 
was more deeply imbued with free principles — not 
the loose and unsandalled vagaries of the French 
Kevolution, not the wild passions of communism 
or .'^ans cuUoffis/n, but the fundamental maxims 
which had found expression in Magna Charta, the 
petition of right, the execution of Charles Stuart, 
the deposition of James, and the bringing over of 
the Prince of Orange, the writ of habeas corpus, 
and the trial by jury, the great landmarks and 
muniments of English liberty, guarded and regu- 
lated by hiAV. These were his ideals, the stern 
leaders of political thought and action in the days 
of the Commonwealth and of antiquity. 

He surpassed all the men I have known in love 
of Nature in all her varying scenes and moods. 
His soul was open to every divine influence. He 
was the friend and familiar of birds and flowers, 
mountains, trees, and streams. Never was there a 
more enraptured lover of natural scenery; none 
who from the hilltops more lovingly drank in the 



UNVEILING CEKEMONIES. 



95 



clouds and the landscapes, the song of the stream- 
let, the kindling star, the full glory of the noontide 
sun. What a reverent observer and worshipper of 
nature he was! His eye kindled and his bosom 
swelled as he beheld the pillars of the forest, the 
arches of the sky, the gray cliffs and shadowy 
cones of the mountains, and listened to the roll of 
the unresting and unsearchable sea. Every spot 
about his home was familiar ground to him, and 
his friends, one by one, under his lead, had to climb 
to the top of every mountain and hill within its 
horizon. He loved :N^ew Hampshire, and every 
hour he was al)sent from it in the public service his 
heart was still " in the highlands." His familiarity 
with natural, local, and family history gave an 
uncommon charm to his easy conversational pow- 
ers, and made his companionship delightful. 

How can those who lived on terms of intimacy 
with Mr. Hale convey to others any adequate im- 
pression of the attractive human traits that shone 
out in his daily intercourse? Those who knew him 
in his prime, and before sickness had rusted the 
Damascus blade, dearly remember his easy acces- 
sibility, his hospitable mind, his apposite stories, 
and his rich fund of wit and anecdote. He was not 
simply loftily interested in mankind, but his heart 
went out to every man, woman, and child in the 
concrete. How well his townsmen knew this, and 
how heartily they loved and admired him for his 
unaffected interest in their personal welfare, their 
health, their children, their business, their pleasures, 
their plans, and hopes, and fears. In early life his 
mind had been promoted, but his heart never rose 



y6 THE HALE STATUE. 

above the ranks. He had a Avarm sympathy with 
humanity in all its phases — 

" No fetter but galled his wrist, 
No wrong that was not his own." 

He was a faithful friend, and assisted those he 
thought deserving, or who managed to ingratiate 
themselves into his confidence or his sympathies. 
Xot infrequently he was the dupe of the designing, 
but such mistakes never chilled his philanthropy, 
nor closed his purse or his heart against the appeal 
of distress, whether genuine or counterfeit. 

At home, as at Washington, he was the un- 
bought counsel and defender of innocence, and no 
calculating spirit was ever the mainspring of his 
action. Milton had a forecast of his character 
when he wrote of Bradshaw, — " If the cause of 
the oppressed was to be defended, if the favor or 
the violence of the great was to be withstood, it 
was impossible in that case to find an advocate 
more intrepid or more eloquent, whom no threats,, 
no terrors, and no rewards could seduce from the 
plain path of rectitude." 

Such a man could gain but little of this world's^ 
possessions. He cared less for what he should 
leave than for what he should take with him; and 
he held unaltered to the end this noble conception 
of the use and duty of life, its consecration to 
helpful service for mankind, and for the poor, and 
weak, and oppressed, above all others. 

In the still more intimate privacies of his own 
home he was the endeared centre of a family circle 
to which he was devotedly attached throughout a 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 97 

stormy and exciting political career, whose stead- 
fast love supported, and whose tenderness soothed 
him to the last. In him the sentiment of home and 
family was strong and beautiful. How pleasant he 
was in that circle! All admitted there felt the 
sweetness of his temper, the easy gentleness of his 
manners, and the charm of his society. He told a 
story with a grace snatched beyond the reach of 
art, and never one anywhere that would sully the 
tongue or the imagination of a maiden. Who that 
knew him there can ever forget his perfect natural- 
ness, his frankness and sociability, his womanly 
tenderness, his delicacy of speech and conduct, his 
playfulness, his absent-mindedness, his chikllike 
simplicities and whimsical oddities, coming out in 
his liking for old ways and old places, and for this 
or that bizarre article of food, or drink, or raiment? 
Beautifully does the admirer already quoted say, 
" These are some of the traits which made us often 
forget in the man and the friend even that public 
record of patriotism and services for humanity 
which places him first in the proud roll of the dis- 
tinguished sons of ^ew Hampshire." 

Such was the man who so bore his great com- 
mission in his look, and so nobly filled the ideal of 
a knight-errant of liberty that Marshall P. Wilder 
most appropriately introduced him at the ^ew 
Hampshire festival hi Boston in 185^ as "the 
very embodiment and incarnation of human free- 
dom," — the man in whom the microscopic power 
of slander could find no spot of impurity, and who, 
God be thanked for such a statesman in the nine- 
teenth century, — 
7 



98 THE HALE STATUE. 

" Through all the tract of years 
Wore the white flower of a blameless life." 

There is no exaggeration in this description of 
Mr. Hale. I know it is the voice of affection, and 
of a domestic grief not yet entirely assnaged. — 

'' Ars utinam mores animumque effingere potest, 
Pulchrior in terris nulla tabella foret.' 

It wonld be unworthy the occasion, the theme, 
the audience, to sketch the character of Mr. Hale 
in any other spirit or colors than those of truth and 
discrimination; and yet, in delineating him, some- 
thing must be yielded to the partiality of private 
friendship. God forbid that we should ever fail 
to dwell on the virtues of our friends, and throw 
the mantle of charity over their frailties. Although 
none could know him truly without a warm admira- 
tion for his noble character, I know how valueless is 
mere indiscriminate panegyric. 'No character is 
flawless, and like other men Mr. Hale had his limi- 
tations. ]^or do I mean to deny the proper meed 
of praise to the other great actors of his time, — 

" Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 
Multi." 

Most of these are now passed away, and there is 
no reason for restraint, but we ma}^ speak with 
posthumous frankness. Undeniably the historians 
of the period have not ascribed to John P. Hale 
that part in the things accomplished in his time to 
which he is really entitled. " On Kansas soil," 
says ex-Gov. Robinson in his recent book, " was 
gained the first decisive victory against the Slave 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 99 

Power of this nation." JS'ot so. More than ten years 
before the Kansas conflict, the first strong outwork 
of slavery was carried in no insignificant battle, and 
John P. Hale, its leader, became the first anti-slav- 
ery senator, — not by accident, but by the might of 
his own invincible arm and indomitable heart, in a 
hand-to-hand struggle in a state that up to that 
gallant fight had been the very citadel of South- 
ern slavery. Yet this fact has been persistently 
ignored, his name and fame have been treated with 
a studied neglect, and those who came in at a later 
day, some even at the eleventh hour, have suc- 
ceeded in reaping the glory and the reward of the 
movement to which he gave the first impulse and 
impetus. I distinctly insist that he it was who won 
the first political success, and who has a valid his- 
torical claim to pioneership in the great uprising 
which terminated slavery. Doubtless its doom was 
written in the book of fate; doubtless others would 
have come and set the ball in motion; but certainly 
he did come, and it is as unreasonable and unjust to 
deny to him the credit as to deny to Luther that of 
the Reformation, or to Sam Adams and Franklin 
that of the Revolution. 

The state, among whose lofty mountains freedom 
loves to rear her mighty children, rescues him 
to-day from this neglect, and demands for him the 
recognition of history to which he is entitled, as one 
who early announced and clearly formulated the 
principles upon which the victory was finally won. 
If elsewhere this injustice to a great man is contin- 
ued, it shall not be without protest in JN'ew Hamp- 
shire, for we announce by a solemn public act that 



100 THE HALE STATUE. 

John P. Hale should stand on tlie pages of history 
foremost among" the champions of liberty, to whom 
America owes her emancipation from slavery. 
JSTeither John P. Hale nor jSTew Hampshire shall be 
shut out hereafter from primacy in the successful 
effort to rescue the republic from the talons of this 
bird of prey. 

And so, with all the ceremony and demonstra- 
tion of respect which the presence of the official 
dignitaries of the state, its culture and its worth, 
can lend to so imposing an occasion — in the pres- 
ence also of official representatives of the two 
cities where Mr. Hale drew his first and his latest 
breath, where he was born and where he had his 
home till the last, and in whose soil he was finally 
laid to his rest, whose representatives are most 
appropriately here and commissioned to assist in 
this tribute of honor and of justice to their most 
eminent son and most beloved citizen ; in this pres- 
ence and in that of some of the veteran coadjutors 
of Mr. Hale who, at his call, budded on their armor 
and fought Avith him the good fight for liberty; in 
the honored presence, also, of some of the renowned 
champions of freedom in the United States, who are 
here to give the dignity and authority of their 
names to this observance — and in the presence of 
that still unbroken family circle that loved him 
most on earth, — we place this great man here in 
the goodly company of Webster and Stark, all 
men of distinct types, differing as the stars differ 
in glory, — the expounder of the constitution, the 
tribune of liberty, and the hero of the Revolution 
on the field of battle. We set up their effigies 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 



101 



here in token of onr reverence for their separate 
and conjoined excellencies of character and achieve- 
ment. 

" It is at the tombs of great men that sncceeding 
generations kindle the lamp of patriotism." A 
nation is known by its ideals, and by snch memori- 
als as this we realize the continuity as well as the 
immortality of hnman excellence in the universe. 
The stream of humanity is unbroken. There is no 
real line between the living and the dead. 

" There is 
One great society alone on earth, 
The noble Living and the noble Dead." 

The Avaves of human life come and go; they 
dash against and sweep away what have been 
esteemed the proudest monuments of human exer- 
tion, but they will not wash away the works that 
have been built up and founded upon the rock of 
human love and fidelity. These will remain when 
not one stone shall be left upon another of the tem- 
ples erected to merely intellectual or military 
renown; and in the expansion of the moral horizon 
that comes to successive generations, posterity 
shall preserve and cherish the memory of every true 
man- who has connected his name with some step in 
the progress of the race. 

When the passions and prejudices aroused by the 
contest against slavery shall have died away; when 
we are farther away from the calculating spirit of 
ftunily, and local, and coterie partiality and selfish- 
ness; when the final story of the anti-slavery 
struggle in this country shall be Avritten, among 



102 THE HALE STATUE. 

those statesmen who wrought for liberty and pro- 
gress in onr age of civic and military valor, and 
who transmuted their own God-given energies into 
current coin for the daily use of humanity, no name 
will shine with a purer lustre on the historic page 
than that of John P. Hale. 

I have supposed, and do suppose, that this is the 
true glory and significance of his career, — that this 
is the emphasis of his life and the distinctive mark 
he made upon his time, — that in which the affec- 
tions of posterity are to hold and garner him. 
Without this, without his connection with the great 
movement for emancipation which has glorified our 
age, and given it an unapproachable exaltation in 
history, he Avould be entitled to public honor as a 
good case law^^er, an eloquent advocate, a useful 
senator, a faithful son, husband, father, and a 
genial and fascinating friend, — but would scarcely 
be entitled to be commemorated by a statue in the 
public grounds of his state. We give such only 
to great services to humanity, and that political 
freedom to which all nations, though by indirect 
and devious routes, are tending: and such we give 
also, only when time has tested, and set its seal 
upon such services. Such men as John P. Hale 
have an imperishable hold upon the moral world, — 

" Ever their pliantoms arise before us, 

Our loftier brothers, but one in blood ; 
At bed and table they lord it o'er us. 

With looks of beauty, and words of good." 

He bore the test of service for liberty at a time 
when such service was the supreme, the inexorable 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 1^3 



demand of the hour. Tried in a time whicli tested 
men's integrity, men's courage, men's souls,— 
tried as by fire and not found wanting,— he 
fitly stands here as the :N-ew Hampshire rep- 
resentative par exceUence of the spirit of the 
new era under whose scorching breath slav- 
ery withered up like a scroll, and went down 
to its dishonored grave. The moral courage 
and intrepidity of this man in the lace of that 
T3ublic opinion whereby the slave power dominated 
and subjected the ]^orth was the forerunner, the 
flaming evangel, of the great uprising of conscience 
in the ^orth, and the harbinger of that martia 
courage which, twenty years later, on a thousand 
fields of battle, was to eclipse the highest achieve- 
ments of chivalry and cast romance into the shade. 
This spirit, this dauntless courage and persistency, 
this contempt of martyrdom, ranks him with the 
apostles of liberty in other ages who occupy the 
highest niches in the Pantheon of freedom. 

Mr Depew says we shall never have a AYest- 
minster Abbey. Perhaps we never shall, but Amer- 
ica will write on her heart the names of her cham- 
pions of liberty, her heroes in council, and on the 

field of battle. 

You shall find in what I say of this great man no 
political hints or innuendoes. What Mr. Hale did 
was for men of all parties. His work contributed to 
the common stock of freedom which all parties 
enioy and recognize. I am not so unworthy of the 
duty laid on me this day as to throw into the scale 
of our current politics even the weight ot an 
obscure suggestion in any phrase I may employ to 



104 THE HALE STATUE. 

express my admiration for Mr. Hale's truth to 
human freedom; and it is the highest tribute our 
generation can pay to his genius and hibors, to 
admit that in political philosophy, in recognition of 
universal human brotherhood, all of us begin where 
he left otf, and stand on the vantage ground he 
gained for us. 

Mr. Hale's political life was cast in a grand and 
fruitful time. He lived when his country was in 
full health, and occupied with momentous subjects. 
Others there have been whose spirits, like his, were 
in tune with the Divine purpose; whose eyes, like 
his, from the mountain-top of vision caught the ear- 
liest light of a new day, but who have only seen it 
from Pisgah, and died without entering the Prom- 
ised Land. But he was permitted to see the com- 
plete triumph of his principles, and the political 
institutions and policy of his country recast in con- 
formity to those ideas to which he had devoted his 
life. He lived to see the definite extinction of slav- 
ery and all its claims, the release of every function 
in the government from its control. He heard the 
roar of hostile guns settling the great debate in 
which he had borne so early and so prominent a 
part, with voices from which there is no appeal. 
He lived to hear, also, the salvos of victory, and to 
see the land covered over with the glory of freedom 
as with a garment. 

One other security safely locks up his fame. 
" At what a price," says Landor, " would many a 
man purchase the silence of futurity." Surely they 
who need that silence most are those who have 
once had their faces set heavenward, and then have 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 105 

faltered and fallen out by the way. The energy and 
exaltation of soul, the nncalculatin«- enthusiasm of 
humanity, which characterize revolutions, are fol- 
lowed by the lowering of tone, the political infidel- 
ity, the eclipse of faith, which succeed them all as 
the night the day. The English revolution which 
dethroned the Stuarts w^as followed by the Restor- , 
ation; the French revolution, l)y Bonapartism and 
a new regime of the Bourbons; Cromwell and 
Hampden, by a more ignoble Charles and the suc- 
cessors of Strafford and Laud; Mirabeau, by Tal- 
leyrand ; the overthrow of prerogative by the long- 
ing for thrones and the government of favorites. 

So we, also, after the gigantic struggle to over- 
throw the oppression of centuries, live in a time of 
reaction. Wealth has usurped leadership; plutoc- 
racy, and not ideas, rules the hour; and the dry 
bones of the old tyranny crushed thirty years ago 
begin to live. The appeal to be true to the ideas 
of 1860 falls upon deaf ears. We would rather 
sacrifice to the Moloch of money; we rise no 
higher in our contentions than some wrangle about 
the tariff, or the puerility and rascality of determin- 
ing how little of intrinsic value we can palm off 
u23on the world for a dollar. 

It was Mr. Hale's high fortune to escape these 
dangers. We have to thank God that there were 
no recantations and no ajDOstacies in his later days ; 
that he w^as never overtaken by the lassitude of 
the moral reformer, or " the scepticism that treads 
upon the heels of revolutions ; '' nor yielded to the 
apostacy that clouds the fame and the memory of 
some who had done valiant service for the right. 



106 THE HALE STATUE. 

And when the great struggle which had opened 
and closed in his lifetime was finished, — when the 
scene upon which he had moved was closed, how 
truly could he say that he had not only fought the 
good fight, but had kept the faith. 

It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the statue 
.of such a man, so long conspicuous in the public 
service, holding the highest commission the state 
had to bestow for nearly twenty years, and ever 
upholding her honor and increasing her fame 
before the world, should be erected here, to stand, 
as we trust, for centuries to come, in the grounds 
of its capitol. We thus pay homage to his 
memory in the state of his birth and his abode; 
in no provincial spirit, however, but as citizens of a 
larger country, in whose service he exerted all the 
powers of his heart and brain. 

This monumental bronze, its pedestal inscribed 
with some of the great outlines of his life story, 
impressively conveys to the younger generations, 
living in the light and stirring with the sublime 
thoughts of a liberty kindled to a higher glow by 
his torch, the assurance that from his lips the 
accents of freedom always found unfettered utter- 
ance, that we have numbered his labors and entered 
into his spirit, and that more than they can pa}^ of 
gratitude and veneration is due to him for the 
achievements and lessons of his high, and pure, and 
strenuous public life. 

Aye more, we proclaim by this act to-day that 
he deserves to stand in the Yalhalla of the National 
Capitol with the sages and worthies whose efiSgies 
adorn its rotunda, because he was the hero of the 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 107 

noblest of our revolutions, — that peaceful revolu- 
tion of ideas in which the seed was sown of the har- 
vest which the soldier's sword came afterwards to 
reap ; — which overturned a giant wrong, emancipa- 
ted the master no less than the slave, and gave to 
America that place in the political order to which 
she was destined by Providence; a revolution 
unlike those that have re-organized societies else- 
where, in that in ours there Avere no crimes and no 
excesses, no Anarchy, no Terror, no Military Des- 
potism, no profanations and no blasphemies, no 
massacres and no proscriptions, to leave their in- 
effaceable stains upon the face of human progress. 
I am quite aware that there is an appointed space 
prescribed by usage and good taste, by the cour- 
tesy of the press and the patience of an audience, 
within which what is said here should be circum- 
scribed. That limit was long since passed, and I 
have lingered unduly over the great man and great 
actions I have sought to commemorate. With all 
who knew him in life, I long to-day 

"... For the touch of a vanished hand. 
And the sound of a voice that is still." — 

and, recalling all that he was to friends and coun- 
try, " my heart, penetrated with the remembrance 
of the man, grows liquid as I speak, and I could 
pour it out like water." 

And then, remembering the Protean forms in 
which the foes of liberty are ever appearing, and 
the dangers that beset the republic for which he 
lived and wrought, the vain sorrow and the selfish 



108 THE HALE STATUE. 

aspiration are alike forgotten, and thinking sadly 
of some crisis of Freedom in future years, and he 
not here to lead on her legions in the bewildering 
fight, I bid hail and farewell to this noble son of 
!New Hampshire, one of the chiefest jewels in her 
crown of glory. 

" Ah ! if in coming times 
Some giant evil arise, 
And Honor falter and pale, 
His were a name to conjure with ! 
God send his like again!" 

When Col. Hall had nearly concluded his oration, 
he was seized with faintness, and was unable to 
finish. His attack was not serious, however, and 
after he was able to leave the platform the exercises 
were continued. 

The Chairman: — It often happens that contem- 
poraries and posterity are so tardy in the apj^recia- 
tion of true greatness, that, when the work of build- 
ing a memorial is done, much, if not all, that was 
personal to the honored dead, has perished from the 
memories of men, or exists only as a half-forgotten 
tradition. I count it the supreme felicity of this oc- 
casion, that our senior senator, in his admiration of 
the character of his distinguished predecessor, rein- 
forced by family affection, has made possible the 
dedication of this statue while so many illusti'ious 
co-laborers with Mr. Hale are among the living; 
and that we have to-day, as the guests of the state, 
so good a representation of the survivors of the 
great anti- slavery conflict. 



UNVEILING CEBEMONIES. 109 



If memory serves me aright, forty-three years 
ao-o one of the northern districts of Pennsylvania 
-^sometimes called the Wihnot Proviso district- 
elected a yonng man to congress, who took his 
seat, the next year, the youngest member of that 
body. July 4, 18(51, he was elected speaker Ol 
the manner in which he bore himself in that high 
office, during those troublesome times, we are not 

io;norant. . . ^. 

It o-ives me pleasure to introduce, at this time, 
the young man of 1850, and the speaker ot the na- 
tional house of representatives in the 37th_ con- 
gress, Hon. Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania. 

HON. GALUSHA A. GEOW's ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens :--At 
midnight closing the twenty-sixth day of May, ISoi 
the boom of cannon in front of the nation s Capitol, 
echoes along the hills that skirt the Potomac. It 
is the jubilation of the champion of American sla- 
very on the final vote in congress repeahng the 
Missouri Compromise, the signature to the a^t by a 
subservient president being already assured. For 
the first time a restriction on the extension of the 
institutions of human bondage on the A™erican 
continent is blotted from the statute book._ With 
the contemplated repeal of one other restriction- 
that prohibiting the foreign slave trade-and the 
final triumph of the devotees of slavery m the eg- 
islation of the country would have been complete. 
Ten years scarcely pass away, and these same 
Potomac hills re-echo the boom of cannon wclcom- 



110 THE HALE STATUE. 

ins: the return of the battle-scarred veterans from 
the victorious fields of a Union saved and a coun- 
try free. The irrepressible conflict of a hundred 
years is ended forever. 

It seems to be a part of the plans of Divine Prov- 
idence that every marked advance in civilization 
must begin in mighty convulsions. The moral law 
was first proclaimed in the thunders of Sinai, and 
the earthly mission of the Saviour of mankind closed 
amidst the rending of mountains and the throes of 
the earthquake. The Goddess of Liberty herself was 
born in the shock of battle, and amid its carnage 
has carved out some of her grandest victories, while 
over its crimson fields the race marches on to higher 
and nobler destinies. As the lightnings of heaven 
rend and destroy only to purify and reinvigorate, 
so Freedom's cannon furrows the fields of decaying 
empires, and seeds them anew with human gore; 
from which springs a more vigorous race, to cher- 
ish the hopes and guard the rights of mankind. 

In the world's decisive battles, in the onward 
progress of the race to a higher and better civiliza- 
tion, great battalions have always marched in the 
rear of great ideas. The armies that saved the 
American Union marched under the inspiration, the 
same as if it had been inscribed upon their banners, 
of that sentiment of 'New Hampshire's greatest son, 
though adopted and crowned with lasting honors by 
Massachusetts, " Liberty and Union, now and for- 
ever, one and inseparable." 

At a time when Slavery in the plenitude of its 
power, dominated every branch of the government, 
dictated its legislation, and made and unmade ]3res- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. Ill 

idents, and, by social and business ostracism, coupled 
not unfrequently with mob violence, was attempting 
to stifle free speech and trammel the freedom of the 
press, like John the Baptist crying in the wilder- 
ness John P. Hale stood solitary and alone in the 
senateof the United States, protesting against such 
domination, and, prophet-like, predicting that a bet- 
ter day would surely come, if its dawn was not al- 
ready near at hand. But, unlike the prophets of 
old, he was not without honor in his own country 
and in the times in which he lived. He led the for- 
lorn hope of a revived love of liberty, which in the 
swift-coming future was to scale the ragged battle- 
ments of human bondage and bid the oppressed go 
free. Thenceforth the inalienable rights of the 
Declaration of Independence are to be the heritage 
of every child born on American soil. 

His private worth, his public acts, and his great 
services to his country, as a faithful tribune of the 
people in the forum of public opinion, have been 
portrayed so faithfully and well b}^ the speakers who 
have preceded me, that no other words of praise or 
eulogy are needed. The real hero is found not 
alone in the night watch and forlorn hope of the 
battlefield, but in the martyrdom of a perverse, op- 
pressive public opinion, and the execution of unjust 
and tyrannical laws. 

Men who breathe their spirit into the institutions 
of their country or stamp their characters upon the 
pillars of the age can never die. Statues and mon- 
uments are erected to their memory. It is well. 
For they stand through the ages, visible objects in- 
citing the living to emulate the virtues and the pat- 



112 THE HALE STATUE. 

riotic devotion of the dead. But the actors in the 
early or later scenes of that mighty national drama 
which closed at Appomattox, Avhether in council or 
on the field, need no monuments of stone or tablets 
of brass to perpetuate their memory. They live in 
the affections of the present, and will live in the 
gratitude of the future. Their tombs are the 
hearts of the great and the good; their monuments, 
the granite hills of a nation rejoicing in freedom. 

The Chairmax: — We have the feeling, and in a 
few instances it has been expressed, that Massachu- 
setts has received from 'New Hampshire large addi- 
tions to its business and professional resources, and 
that we have the right to call upon our sister com- 
monwealth whenever assistance is needed. We 
should not feel that this statue was properly dedi- 
cated without a word from Massachusetts. Gov- 
ernor Boutwell, whose life-work has been a part of 
the history of that state for fifty years, has kindly 
consented to make a brief address, and I gladly 
announce him as the next speaker. 

HOX. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL's ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairmax axd Ladies axd Gextlemex: — 
If I do not err in my estimate of Mr. Hale's ser- 
vices, his claim to the honors that are tendered to 
his name and memory by his native state and by a 
public larger than any state, rests upon a most sub- 
stantial foundation. In early manhood he was. 
allied to a political party that was dominant in the 
state, — a party that for more than a generation had 



UNVEILING CEEEMONIES. 113 

dictated the policy of the country. Without delay, 
by his talents, learning, and wisdom in affairs, he 
was advanced to places of honor, power, and trust, 
and made secure in a public confidence not limited 
by party lines. 

When, in his thirty-eighth year, Mr. Hale took 
his seat in the house of representatives, there 
were but few, if any, whose abilities were superior, 
and none, probably, whose prospects in a party- 
political aspect were better. Before his first term 
in congress was ended he was forced to accept or 
to confront the policy of slavery-extension, to which 
the Democratic party was then about to commit 
itself. Without hesitation, and with the fervid 
energy of youth, he denounced the project as a 
crime, in which not one redeeming feature could be 
found. Thenceforward, and especially during the 
next two years, he gave himself without reserve to 
a contest in l^ew Hampshire which attracted the 
attention and involved the fortunes of the whole 
country, — a contest, which, as we approach the 
close of a half century, is not yet ended. Dis- 
regarding these incitements to ambition, putting 
aside these prospects of promotion, Mr. Hale made 
war upon the slave-power, — not yet upon slavery 
itself, — in one of the strongholds of that power, as 
jS^ew Hampshire then was. 

The generation to which Mr. Hale belonged did 
not comprehend that power, and to this generation 
all adequate statements must appear to be exagger- 
ations. In 1839, Mr. Clay valued the slaves of the 
country at twelve hundred million dollars, and the 
auxiliary property in lands and debts whose value 



114 THE HALE STATUE. 

rested upon slave labor could uot have been less 
than twelve hundred million more. Thus there 
was concenti'ated in defence of the institution a sum 
equal to a third or a quarter assuredly of the total 
property of the country. This enormous invest- 
ment was buttressed by the constitution, sustained 
by a large public sentiment in which there lingered 
the tradition only that slavery was a local institu- 
tion. That tradition found but a feeble expression 
in the press, in the bar, in the courts, in the col- 
leges, in the churches, and finally in the political 
parties into which the country was divided. 

Fortunately for Mr. Hale the contest which he 
carried on in 1845, '46, and '47 was in a state which 
had no pecuniary interest in the institution of slav- 
ery-extension upon moral and political grounds, 
and so dealing with it Mr. Hale achieved the first 
of the long line of victories which have marked the 
steps by which the foulest of tyrannies has been 
destroyed, not in America only, but in Portugal, 
Spain, and Brazil; and thus has humanity been 
inspired with the hope that the time is not distant 
when slavery shall disappear even from the savage 
and semi-civilized races of men. 

So much has been gained, and what has been 
gained cannot be lost except in a general wreck of 
human institutions; but the contest on which Mr. 
Hale entered in 1845 is not ended. Indeed, a half 
century is a brief period for the extirpation of 
a crime and the influence of a crime that had 
degraded millions of men into chattels; a crime 
that had been embalmed in the constitution by the 
patriot founders of the Republic ; a crime that was 



UNVEII.ING CEREMONIES. 115 

authorized and justified, or at least, tolerated by 
tlie Scriptures, as was proclaiuied by more than 
half the teachers in the pulpits and believed by 
more than half the occupants of the pews; a crime 
that controlled a product that was essential to trade 
at home and to commerce abroad; a crime that 
thus had been raised to the dignity of a virtue in 
the estimation of a vast majority of the people in 
fifteen states of the Union. 

It was against this formidable array of authority 
and power that Mr. Hale and his associates made 
war. An unequal contest in the beginning, to be 
transformed into victory at the end; but the end is 
not yet reached. The tone of the press, the voice 
of the pulpit, the opinions of the people have been 
changed, and all for justice and right. The con- 
stitution of the country has been remodeled, slavery 
has disappeared, citizenship has been made national 
and universal, and the equality of men in the states 
has been guaranteed as the basis of the equality of 
states in the Union. 

To these results Mr. Hale contributed most 
largely through a period of twenty years of event- 
ful public service, and thus we justify his claim to 
the honors that are tendered to his name and mem- 
ory by the authorities and citizens of his native 
state. 

The four million of emancipated slaves have 
increased to seven million citizens, a ninth part of 
the population of the Republic, aud of these, more 
than two thirds are denied the rights of citizens in 
the states where they reside. This is the remain- 
ing crime of slavery — our inheritance from that 



116 THE HALE STATUE. 

institution — a crime that is justified in the old 
slave states and tolerated and excused by influen- 
tial men and bodies of men in all parts of the coun- 
try. 

If Mr. Hale and his associates are worthy of 
monuments and statues, then it is the duty of this 
generation to consummate the work Avhich was by 
them so well begun. 

The Chairma:n^: — There is upon this platform a 
distinguished citizen of the United States, who 
made his first visit to IS^ew Hampshire half a cent- 
ury ago. He did not at that time receive the 
welcome due to his manhood at the hands of our 
people generally. To-day he comes as the guest 
of the state, which now makes full and glad atone- 
ment for its earlier shortcomings. Mr. Douglass, 
may we hear from you? 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairman: — I have made no preparation 
to address this audience, and had hoped that the 
managers of this occasion would allow me to sit 
here and only give color to the occasion. (Laugh- 
ter.) I hardly ought to be here to-day on account 
of my health. I am very feeble, and am sufi'ering 
from an attack which Avould excuse me almost for 
my absence from this place ; but I desired to be 
here, and I may say that I never in all my life 
desired more fervently to make a speech than on 
this occasion, and never felt myself less able to do 
so than now. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 117 

I want, however, to say that, m 1845, it was 
inv pleasure and my privilege to look upon the 
manly form of John P. Hale, and thereafter to 
meet him often, and to hear his melodious voice 
and listen to the thrilling sentiments he Avas accus- 
tomed to utter in connection with the great cause 
of liberty. I travelled with him some in central 
'New York, in company with him who was after- 
wards Chief-Justice Chase, and heard them both 
speak. I saw them in public and saw them in 
private, and one thing, which has not been men- 
tioned in the elaborate, eloquent, and able discourse 
that we have heard, struck me in regard to John 
P. Hale. It was this: AVherever he stopped, and 
there were any little children around, little girls 
and boys, somehow or other they were irresistibly 
attracted to John P. Hale. (Applause.) They 
would lean on his knees, play about him ; and I 
thought that was a good sign, a very striking evi- 
dence of the greatness of the man. It reminded 
me of the saying of the Saviour, " Suffer little chil- 
dren to come unto me, for of such is the Idngdom 
of Heaven." And if you ever see a man in your 
travels anywhere in this Avorld from whom children 
shrink, there is something wrong about that man. 
(Laughter.) I was going to say that if you see a 
man from whom the ladies shrink, there is some- 
thing wrong about him. (Laughter.) 

I wanted to be here because I am one of the vast 
multitude of emancipated ones whom John P. Hale 
devoted his heart and his transcendent abilities to 
liberate. I wanted to be here to represent those 
millions; to shoAV you that one, at least, of those 



118 THE HALE STATUE. 

inillioiis appreciates the greatness, the grandeur, 
and the devotion and the courage of John P. Hale. 
(Applause.) 

We, in this day, can hardly understand the meas- 
ure of the greatness of that man's courage, the 
greatness of the sacrifice he made, the greatness 
of his faith in the ultimate triumph of great prin- 
ciples. Why, he was preceded in Washington by 
John Quincy Adams, a man venerable for his 
learning in the laws, skilled in legislation, an 
acknowledged statesman; and yet against him 
came a torrent of abuse and persecution that well 
nigh drove him from the house of representatives. 
Happily for him, though not remarkable for his 
eloquence in his younger days, he became the " old 
man eloquent," and could defend himself. John 
Marshall, who brought in the resolution for his 
expulsion, remarked that Mr. Adams took longer 
to defend himself than it took God Almighty to 
make the world, for he spoke two weeks. Finally 
he overcame the opposition and was allowed to 
stand his ground ; and when he came home to old 
Massachusetts, our poet was enabled to say to 
him , — 

Not from the bloody field, 

Borne on his battered shield, 

By foe o'ercome ; 

But from a sterner fight 

In the defence of right. 

Clothed in a conqueror's might, . 

We hail him home. 

Where slavery's minions cower 
Before their servile power, 
He bore their ban ; 



UNVEILING CEKEMONIES. H^ 

And, like an aged oak 
That braved the lightning's stroke, 
AVhen thunders round it broke, 
Stood up a man. 

:Now, I say, we have no scales in which to Aveigh 
the courage and the manliness of John P. Hale; 
we have no means of measuring it — we of the 
present generation, I mean, — but if you go back to 
the time when the honest farmers of the state of 
IS'ew Hampshire thought themselves justified in 
yoking up ninety oxen to drag away a negro 
school-house, you will see that John P. Hale had 
something to meet in the state of IS'ew Hampshire 
as well as in the state of South Carolina. (Ap- 
plause.) 

I remember the time that I came here, fifty years 
ago. I was a slave, even here in ^NTew Hampshire. 
Indeed, in all parts of the country I was a slave. 
The country was a slave hunting-ground, all over 
it. A slave could be started at Ticonderoga, and 
chased down to Bunker Hill, and he might ascend 
that granite shaft, with its capstone in the clouds, 
and plead in the name of the blood that was spat- 
tered at its base to be allowed liberty, and even 
there he could be hunted, chained, and dragged 
back to slavery. Xot only the South, but the 
:N'orth, was in a state to make it dangerous for any 
man to take the side of the slave. There was no 
valley so deep, no mountain so high, no glen so 
secluded, no spot so sacred to liberty, in any part 
of this broad land, whereon I could place my foot 
and say, with safety, I am now secure from the 
slave hunters. 



120 THE HALE STATUE. 

In that day, too, the American eagie refused to 
give me shelter, and there was no room under the 
outspread Avings of the eagle for the head of Fred- 
erick Douglass ; but, besides, the American eagle 
laid bad eggs at that time. (Laughter.) It was 
hardly safe for us to open our mouths in the inter- 
est of liberty in those days ; and the thing that 
pleases me to-day is the vast and wonderful change 
that has taken place. Yes, this audience is full 
compensation, full compensation for the slender 
audience that met me in the old town hall, with its 
side benches — I can see it now, but it is gone. 
This was not such a city then as it is now. 

A YoiCE. — What about suftrage down South? 

Me,. Douglass. — I was going to say something 
about that. As I heard Governor Boutwell say 
on the floor of congress, when he was going on 
with a volley of eloquence, as he could then, some 
one interrupted him, and said, " How about this?"' 
and he replied, Well, " I am coming to that." 
(Laughter.) I am coming to that. 

I have often said that the want of congress now, 
or want of the senate, is another John P. Hale. 
(Applause.) We have a representative who has 
inherited his principles, and has the nerve to stand 
up on the floor of the senate and utter his convic- 
tions in regard to a free ballot and an honest count, 
and that is your senator, Hon. AVilliam E. Chand- 
ler. (Ap})lause.) He is no coward. But, great 
as he is, he will admit that John P. Hale Avas a lit- 
tle taller man. ( Laughter.) 

Mr. Hale entered the senate under circumstances 
that would have taxed the courage of a ]N^apoleon 



UNVEILING EXERCISES. 121 

— aye, more than that, for IS^apoleoii did not have 
the moral courage to begin with John P. Hale. It 
was something for a man to come from 'New 
Hampshire and stand in the presence of Henry 
Clay, of John C. Calhoun, of Lewis Cass, and of 
Daniel Webster, their bright eyes opening upon 
him, and resenting his interposition — I say, it was 
something to stand up there in such presence and 
be a man, as was John P. Hale. (Applause.) 

Mr. Clay tried to down him in his very suave 
and eloquent manner. It so happened that, during 
the compromise measures, Mr. Hale in several in- 
stances followed Mr. Clay, who made many speeches 
on that compromise measure. When Mr. Clay 
spoke, the senate chambers were usually full. Mr, 
Clay came in one morning, and after being followed 
by Mr. Hale, said, " It will l)e noticed by the sen- 
ators that on almost every occasion when it is my 
privilege to address the senate of the United 
States, I am followed by the senator from N^ew 
Hampshire. If that is to be taken as a desire on 
his part to measure arms with me in oratory, I con- 
cede the palm." Mr. Hale, sitting in his seat, 
said, " That accounts for the calumny." Mr. Clay 
sang out, "What calumny, sir? " in his imperious 
way. Mr. Hale says, " I answer no questions put 
to me in that tone." He was able to meet any 
occasion. His aptness of reply was wonderful, and 
his illustrations were striking. 

I did not intend to speak even this long. I 
never make long speeches. This occasion requires 
a short speech, and I never made a short speech 
with which I was satisfied, and I never made a 



122 THE HALE STATUE. 

long one with which anybody else was satisfied. 
(Laughter.) This good man whom you have 
taken away [Col. Hall] has stolen much of my 
thunder that I thought I would use if I spoke at 
all. He has gone before me and has taken the 
bread of life out of my mouth. 

I can only say to you, my friends, that I am 
greatly impressed with the vast and wonderful 
change that has taken place in the condition of my 
people. It seems to me that I am living in a new 
world; that I am seeing more than John saAv in 
his apocalyptic vision, a new heaven and a new 
earth ! What a transition from the past to the 
present ! For we have heard of nations being 
born in a day; but this nation has certainly been 
turned upside down in a very short time. 

]^ow in regard to the condition of things at the 
South, I am much exercised just now. I do not 
know what- it is coming to. At this time there is 
a tide of lawlessness and violence sweeping over 
the South that is almost disheartening, and until 
we infuse a little more backbone into the Repub- 
lican party, and that party will bring to the front 
the question of right, the question of justice, the 
question of the constitution, we shall see this tide 
of violence sweep on. How wonderful it is that 
these men, who a few years ago were on the battle 
field with arms in their hands and bullets in their 
pockets, and with broad blades and bloody hands 
seeking to dismember this country, that they can 
stand up now on the floor of the senate of the 
United States and tell the North, tell the world, 
that they mean to violate the constitution so far as 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 123 

preventing the negro voting. They dare to tell us 
so. Oh, if they should speak this in the presence 
of that man there, he would skin them alive 
(laughter and cries of " Good ") or drive them to 
their homes. And it is coming, it is coming. I 
think our convention at Minneapolis — I hope no 
Democrat will take offence — our Republican con- 
vention there was a little more determined on this 
qnestion than heretofore. But I have to say in 
regard to the Kepublican party that it is a great 
mistake for that party to dwarf and belittle the 
moral side of their character by presenting to us 
on all occasions only the one theme, tariff, tariff, 
tariff. These things we ought to have done, and 
not left the other undone. I think that the nation 
has a soul, or ought to have a soul, and I can say 
to it, "What of it ? What if you gain the whole 
world for your market and lose your own soul ? " 
(Applause.) The soul of a nation is its honor, and 
you l^ound yom'selves when you gave the negro 
his liljerty, wdien you gave him the right to vote, 
you pledged yourselves that you would see to it 
that that right would be protected. (Applause.) 
What a humiliating spectacle do we present, if it 
can be said that we can defend the liberty of the 
American citizen in Chili, that you can defend 
him in any foreign country, but you cannot defend 
his liberty at home. I do not believe that to be 
the case, but I believe that that is the truth to press 
home upon the American people and upon the law- 
makers of our time. 

My friends, I have spoken longer than I in- 
tended. I did not expect to speak at all* and, 



124 THE HALE STATUE. 

really, it is only because my style of going along 
in this matter is a little different from the written 
style which I shonld have adopted if I had pre- 
pared myself, that it onght to be tolerated. After 
we have had so much fine and learned eloquence, 
so much transcendental eloquence, I thought that 
you could bear a few desultory remarks such as I 
have been trying to make. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) 

The Chairman: — i^ot only did Mr. Hale attach 
to himself all reasonable anti-slavery workers, but 
scholars and all men striving for the upbuilding of 
character in their fellows. 

Among the younger of the clergy of his day, per- 
haps no one knew him better than Rev. Dr. Wood- 
bury, formerly pastor of the Unitarian church in 
Concord, and now of Providence, R.L,whom I ask 
to speak of Mr. Hale as he knew him. 

ADDRESS OF REV. AUGUSTUS WOODBURY, D. D. 

It is an especial gratification to me that I am 
able to participate in the exercises of this day. My 
friendly relations with the generons donor of the 
statue, my cordial interest in all that pertains to the 
history of ^ew Hampshire, and my personal admi- 
ration of the character and public service of Mr. 
Hjjle, all combine to make the occasion one of satis- 
faction and delight. The eloquent oration and ad- 
dresses to which we have listened, in their words 
of appropriate and appreciative eulogy, have left 
but little for me to say, which can add to the dig- 



U^^VEILING CEREMONIES. 125 

nity of the theme or the method of its treatment. 
It is only a simple contribution that I can make 
to the united and general voice of well-merited 
praise. Yet we have come together here to-day 
not to praise but to commemorate, and the com- 
memoration finds its best and highest function in 
stimulating ourselves to noble living, as we turn our 
thoughts to him who has won for himself a place 
among the noble dead. To myself as to you, fel- 
low-citizens, the name of John P. Hale has been 
for half a century the synonym of private and pub- 
lic virtue, patriotic courage, unswerving devotion 
to the principles of religious and political freedom, 
and an unfaltering advocacy of the dearest rights 
of man. Stark was the brave soldier, Web- 
ster the consummate orator. Hale the champion 
of liberty for all. It is well that they should be 
grouped here, their forms and features preserved in 
enduring bronze, to teach the generations to come, 
that fidelity of service to the Republic, in whatever 
field it may be displayed, will ever be held in high, 
affectionate^ and permanent esteem. A sincere 
feeling of gratitude for the labors of those who 
have helped to shape " the fortune of the Kepublic " 
mingles with the desire to do Avhat we can in the 
work of perpetuating the story of their deeds. But 
it is ever to be remembered that it is not what we 
may do or say that honors their memory Rather 
would we be assured that the opportunity which 
is given to us of recalling their services, imparts an 
honor to ourselves. 

The word which I have to speak must necessarily 
be one of reminiscence. It was in my boyhood, 



126 THE HALE STATUE. 

while a student at Exeter, that I first saw and 
lieard John P. Hale. He was tlien in the flush of 
his ambition and liope. Deepl}^ interested as I was, 
even at that early day, in the questions which were 
then agitating" the public mind, I was one of the 
assembly that crowded the Town hall at Exeter to 
hear the discussion in which Mr. Hale was to take 
part. Of course I cannot remember the exact words 
which were spoken. I can only recall the impres- 
sion which was made upon my youthful mind. 
Particularly was I struck by the sturdy indepen- 
dence, the outspoken boldness, which were charac- 
teristic of the orator, whose magnetic presence, 
good-humored wit, and resonant eloquence aroused 
the audience to an admiring enthusiasm. The ag- 
gressiveness of the slave power was still far from 
the point of actual resistance to the government, 
but the mutterings of the coming storm in the move- 
ment for the annexation of Texas had begun to be 
heard, and it was quite evident that Mr. Hale was 
not to be terrified or even alarmed by any threat- 
ening cloud that might appear upon the political 
horizon. How he met the tempest when it came, 
and how he bore himself in the strife of elements, is 
a matter of history, and has been well set forth in 
the addresses which have already been spoken. 
For myself, it is suflScient to say that the intei'est 
with which I listened to his fervid oratory grew in- 
to admiration, when, in after years, I watched his 
public career, rejoiced in his successes, and had the 
honor, for a brief period, of his personal acquaint- 
ance. 

I speak of this incident to-day because it has 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 127 

reference to a matter of great importance which 
any one who addresses a public assembly should 
bear in mind. Among his auditors there will cer- 
tainly be a greater or less number of young hearers, 
who will catch the tone and spirit of the address, 
and Avho will be affected by them to a considerable 
degree. It is often the case, that an apparently 
casual word will determine the current of a young- 
man's thought, and possibly turn the direction of 
his life. It may arouse his ambition to achieve a 
generous, brave, and honorable manhood, or it may 
lead him to sordid, mercenary, and unworthy 
courses. The young are very quick to receive im- 
pressions, and in the fresh soil of an immature 
mind the good seed germinates quickly, or noxious 
weeds find a ready opportunity for growth. As 
Mr. Lincoln, in one of his addresses, said, " these 
early impressions last longer than any others." The 
young men of the country set forward to true, 
patriotic, and unselfish living by the words of their 
j^ublic teachers, would, as Mr. Emerson said they 
should, "• bind each other to loyalty " at the altar, 
" where genius would kindle its fires and bring 
forgotten truth to the eyes of men." But it is the 
bearing and spirit of the speaker himself that pro- 
duces the effect — the unconscious influence of the 
character of the orator, that works out the result. 
A brave and manly sincerity will touch the heart 
of the listener, and stir the mind to noble thought. 
A false and insincere spirit will be sure to manifest 
itself. The young are quick to detect the inner 
soul of the man, and to those eager eyes there can 
be no concealment. " The style is the man," it is 



128 THE HALE STATUE. 

sometimes said. But the st^^le reaches farther than 
the construction of finely rounded periods. In its 
best expression, it is the true and noble utterance 
of true and noble thought. Lincoln's Gettysburg 
address, brief as it is, outweighs the statel}" oration 
of Everett, and carries away the honors of the occa- 
sion by the sheer force of its complete sincerity. 
This, as it seems to me, was characteristic of the 
utterance of Hale. Although a hypercriticism 
might detect some unimportant faults of rhetoric, 
the most patient investigation could find nothing 
to detract from the courage and truthfulness, that 
gave vividness and force to his ardent and impas- 
sioned orator}^ 

Later on, in my early manhood, I heard Mr. Hale 
on an entirely diftei*ent occasion. It is well known 
among his friends that he once essayed, for a sea- 
son at least, the task of a lecturer in the desk of 
the popular lyceum, which at one time occupied a 
considerable space in the public regard. Like all 
other men who are accustomed to the freedom of 
extemporaneous speech, Mr. Hale's manner was 
more subdued, when confined to a manuscript upon 
the lecture platform, than when he spoke in the 
spontaneous oratory of the public rostrum. The 
subject which he chose may not have been so at- 
tractive as one more closely related to the questions 
of popular debate. It was the " Last Gladiatorial 
Combat in Rome," which he undertook to depict. 
]N^evertheless, a theme api^arently so remote as that 
became, in his hands, the opportune appeal to the 
noblest moral instincts of his hearers. He told, in 
graphic style, and in clear, incisive language, the 



UNVEILING CEEEMONIES. 129 

story of the Christian monk, Telemachus, who in 
the year 404 made a special and sacred mission to 
Rome, and at the supreme moment of a gladiatorial 
fight threw himself into the midst of the strife and 
sacrificed his life in a vain attempt to separate the 
combatants and put an end to the bloody and inhu- 
man spectacle. He paid the penalty of his temer- 
ity. But even the hard hearts of the brutal Roman 
populace were touched by the unexpected scene. 
The Emperor Honorius, induced by the report of 
the transaction, abolished the gladiatorial, games, 
and the carnage came to an end. ]N"ever again were 
the sands of the arena stained by the blood of those 
brave men who were brought from their distant 
homes and " butchered to make a Roman hoKday." 
The self-sacrifice of the Christian disciple had con- 
quered even a Roman's greed for blood. 

The story having been told, the application, as 
Mr. Hale made it, was obvious. In solemn, digni- 
fied, and impressive accents, he closed his address 
in words like these, as they recur to me through 
the remembrance of nearly forty years : " Is there 
not an institution in our own land as deeply and 
thoroughly seated in the social and political life of 
the nation as that bloody spectacle in the social and 
political life of imperial Rome? May not the time 
come, when, even though it be but by a- single 
man's devotion to conscience and God, the spirit of 
self-sacrifice, bravely moving to an ottering of per- 
sonal happiness and life, shall be as fully efi'ectual 
in putting an end to this barbaric power of slavery? 
Surely, among American citizens such an act of 
an equally supreme heroism cannot be impossible." 



130 THE HALE STATUE. 

Doubtless he did not imagine, as no one among us 
was able at the time to foresee, that, not one, but 
hundreds of thousands, of American citizens, would 
lay their lives upon the altar of their nation's free- 
dom, and, by the sacrifice, which had its climax in 
the death of the martyred president, put an end 
forever to the curse that had so long blighted the 
land that was worth loving " beyond compare." 

Thus it came to pass, the impressions of my boy- 
hood's days deepened into the conclusions of my 
manhood's years. In the sober light of history, too, 
which clearly reveals both the virtues and the weak- 
nesses of human nature, I have seen no reason to 
change the opinion or lower the estimate of the 
character of the man in honoring whom the state of 
'New Hampshire honors herself John P. Hale 
still stands, and will always stand, as the embodi- 
ment of manly courage, of sincere, unselfish patriot- 
ism, of incorruptible statesmanship. Liberal, de- 
vout, and reverential in his religion, broad and gen- 
erous in thought, as he was independent in politics, 
he " came full circle " in his well-rounded manhood, 
and thus his life career is to us and to all an inspi- 
ration, as well as a study. With him, blandish- 
ments and threats were equally ineftectual to turn 
him from the course which his convictions of duty 
impelled him to pursue. He stood upon his own 
feet, spoke his own words, did with all his might 
what his conscience bade him, and left the legacy 
of his independent and faithful life to his children 
and his chikh'en's children, to his fellow-citizens of 
state and nation, as an enduring memorial of his 
virtue. If these voiceless lips could speak, the 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 131 

word would surely be: " Be brave; be bold in vir- 
tue's cause, be true, be faithful to conscience, the 
deepest convictions of duty and the highest ideals 
of life. Be loyal to your noblest self, your fellow- 
men, your country, God, and the truth, which he is 
always revealing ! " What better word can there 
be than that? 

The granite may crumble and the bronze may 
waste beneath the corroding touch of time. But 
right is right, and truth is truth as long as sun 
and moon endure, and he who serves them well with 
self-forgetting devotion partakes of their own eter- 
nal. 

The Chairma:n^ : — We have among our own 
citizens one who as an editor many years ago was 
described as a " Free Soiler with abolition proclivi- 
ties." Such a man must have been a close observer 
of Mr. Hale's course. It gives me pleasure to in- 
troduce the Hon. Amos Hadley. 

HOJ^^. AMOS HADLEY's ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairman^ ant> Fellow-Citizens: — That 
statue, mute, but eloquent in its silence, appeals to 
memory and summons historic recollection. It 
bids the mind recur to years nearly half-way along 
the present century's course, — the years of '45 and 
'46, — years of eventful significance in the political 
history of our state and nation. For then it was 
that, in our state, liberty, as the natural right of 
universal humanity, first efi'ectively asserted its 
€laim as a practical cardinal principle in political 



132 THE HALE STATUE. 

creed and action. Then it was that the security of 
a party long dominant in ^ew Hampshire was first 
seriously troubled, and its ascendancy threatened, 
nay, temporarily overthrown, by the dark-looming* 
question of slavery. Then it was that the voice of 
one of the ablest leaders of that pai ty was heard 
calling halt to it, and with the prophetic sagacity 
of high philanthropic statesmanship, appealing to 
it to take new bearings, and henceforth to march to 
the music of union and liberty, and not of union 
and slavery. That voice was the voice of John P. 
Hale. 

To use the pun of those days of turbid political 
atmosphere, a protracted "Hale-stoim" arose. It 
came up from the South. It was generated of 
Texas Annexation, a measure primarily designed to 
sustain and perpetuate the inconsistency and sin of 
human slavery in our boasted republic of the free. 
A Democratic member of the lower house of con- 
gress, John P. Hale, had already shown manly, but 
risky, independence in opposing the twenty-first 
rule, — the infamous " Atherton gag " upon anti- 
slavery petitions; but he had been renominated 
with three associates upon a general ticket. Soon 
the 'New Hampshire legislature, in its quadrennial 
winter session of 18f4;-5, instructed the congres- 
sional delegation to support the annexation of 
Texas. But circumstances had evolved a moral 
hero, ready to surrender " ofiice, place, and power, 
rather than bow down and worship slavery." Such 
evolution could not but work commotion. Within 
ten days, John P. Hale, from his seat in congress, 
boldly met the legislative instruction with a letter. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 133 

in which he flatly refused compliance, and de- 
nounced the aims and purposes of the annexation 
measure, and the reasons urged therefor, as " emi- 
nently calculated to provoke the scorn of earth, 
and the judgment of Heaven." That letter was a 
thunderbolt, close herald of a storm — a storm of 
^'hailstones and coals of fire! " 

There was a fearful rattling among the dry bones 
of party conservatism. There was a waking up 
with hornet wrath not unmixed with fear. There 
was huriy-scurry among the Democratic leaders, 
who said one to another, " Away with him — the pes- 
tilent fellow with his twaddle of freedom!" The 
state convention was reassembled, a month before 
the March election of 1845, the refractory candi- 
date was dropped, and one was substituted in 
whose party subservience there was "no guile." 
But while the spirit of angry revenge was thus 
aroused in the Democratic party, conscience was 
also awakened therein to the important issue, and 
the resolute, though discarded, candidate had those 
who stood by him and his righteous cause. A 
cleavage showed itself in the party's hitherto com- 
pact solidity. At the ensuing election, while the 
other congressional candidates were chosen, the 
substitute for Mr. Hale was not. Three other trials 
were made in course of the year, — the last in 
March, 1846, — but with no choice of the fourth 
member; Mr. Hale's place in congress remained 
unfilled. 

The storm had been on, fiercely pelting all the 
while. Hale's canvasses had covered the state from 
the Cochecho to the Connecticut, and from Cocis to 



134 THE HALE STATUE. 

Strawberry Bank, His argninents and appeals, 
heard clear, strong, and convincing above the 
angry, clamorous din of overbearing, denunciatory 
opposition, had sunk deep into many hearts, infus- 
ing them with courage to break the ties of party, 
for conscience, country, truth, and hberty. Deeper 
and deeper had grow^n the cleavage in the rock of 
Granite Democracy, till the " Independent Demo- 
crats'' had become a considerable party. Accord- 
ingly, at the March election of 1846, the Anti- 
Democratic parties, though retaining two organiza- 
tions and supporting two state tickets, had together 
won, potentially, a sweeping anti-slavery triumph. 
Here, indeed, was something new under the sun. 

It was now the first Wednesday of June, 181(3 — 
the day for organizing anew the state government. 
The effects of the great political storm were strik- 
ingly visible. 'No governor, no quorum of council 
or senate had been chosen by popular vote; but a 
house of representatives had been; and that, by 
wise coalition, was anti-slavery by a safe majority. 
And that house, too, contained among its members 
one John P. Hale of Dover. He there to lead the 
anti-slavery majority? He there with an unexpired 
and a full term in the United States senate at the 
disposal of that legislature? Were indeed "the 
stars in their courses fighting against Sisera? " So 
it would certainly seem, whether " Sisera " was 
John P. Hale's former party, or slavery itself. 

On the bright morning of that third day of Jime, 
1846, intense interest centered in the New Hamp- 
shire house of representatives. And here pursuing 
briefly a train of personal reminiscence, I will 



UNVEILING CEKEMONIES. 135 

relate what I saw and heard. Standing in the 
crowded sonth gallery of the old capitol, I looked 
down npon that full honse, comprising able men 
of both parties ; for practically there were but two. 
The oath has been administered by Governor 
Steele, the outgoing executive, the clerk of the last 
house has called to order, and Thomas E. Sawyer 
of Dover has been chosen chairman. IN'ow the 
balloting for speaker is on. The definite test of 
party strength is making; there is the correspond- 
ing stress of interest. The votes are gathered, 
sorted and counted, and the chairman announces, 
amidst the breathless attention of house and gal- 
leries, this result: 

"Whole number of votes cast, 260; necessary 
to a choice, 131; Henry B. Rust has 1 ; George G. 
Fogg has 2; Samuel Swasey has 118; John P. 
Hale has 139;— and John P. Hale having a ma- 
jority of the votes cast, is elected speaker." 

Glad applause greets the announcement. Mr. 
Hale arises and passes with prompt and dignified 
step to the speaker's chair. ]^o curulx? chair, — it 
seemed to me then, and it seems to me now — could 
ever be more becomingly filled. The new speaker 
was in the vigorous maturity of forty years, of 
strong and symmetric physical build, with a face 
glowing with ruddy health, bright with brilliance of 
intellect and genialness of lieart, — a face, hand- 
some, good-natured, jovial even, but with a will in 
it. A man of cool self-possession, easy dignity, 
and admirable poise, the speaker stood in his place, 
and pronounced his address of acceptance in the 
clear, mellow tones of that voice which had been 



136 THE HALE STATUE. 

heard enunciating with such effect, for more than a 
year, throughout the state, the gospel of hberty. 
In the course of that address, independence of 
opinion was urged with a most effective appro- 
priateness, in these words : 

" Coming together from the different parts of the 
state — representing her various interests, and, a 
fact neither to be denied nor kept out of sight, ex- 
ponents of widely different pohtical sentiments — en- 
tire unanimity of opinion is not to be expected, per- 
haps not to be desired. But if we must differ, we 
can respect honest differences of opinion, according 
to each other the same integrity of purpose which 
we claim for ourselves." 

^ever shall I forget with what rich melody of 
tone, impressive emphasis, and depth of conviction, 
the speaker uttered these, among his closing 
words : — 

"■ For myself, gentlemen, in the discharge of the 
duties of this chair, and in every other position in 
which the voice of the people or the providence of 
God may call me to act, I shall read for myself, — 
and I suggest the same for your consideration, — 
that immortal sentiment, which the wisdom of our 
fathers placed as the corner stone of our constitu- 
tion, ' that all men are created equally free and in- 
dependent,' as the most emphatic declaration of the 
will of the people of 'New Hampshire." 

The speaker had closed amid appreciative ap- 
plause, when one at my side, not liking the present 
turn of politics, uttered to another of kindred sen- 
timents, the sneering criticism, "Abolition! " To 
which came the reply, in a similar tone, " Yes, he 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 137 

means the nigger." Inadvertently significant were 
those sneers. Yes, Hale did " mean the negro," as 
a fellow-man divinely entitled to all the rights of 
humanity, and he would mean the negro all along 
in the coming years ; the free ISTorth, too, would get 
to " mean the negro," more and more ; ay, and the 
time was coining when the voice of the God of 
Nations and of Justice would be heard amid the 
bloody terrors of slavery-engendered war, — and 
heard to be obeyed, — I mean the negro. "Let the 
oppressed go free." 

But this train of reminiscence must here be left. 
That it has been pursued thus far, or even at all, 
finds a reason in the more than ordinary historic 
significance of its main fact. That occupancy of 
the speaker's chair by John P. Hale, representing, 
as it did, early successful resistance to the behests 
of slavery, was, as seen in the light of subsequent 
history, an important one in the series of events 
that culminated in slavery destroyed and the Union 
saved. 

Did time and the scope of this eff'ort permit, 
another scene might be depicted — that enacted six 
days later in the same legislature, when Speaker 
Hale, rejected by his former party from the lower 
house of congress, was elected to the senate of the 
United States for six years from the 4th of March, 
1847. Oh, what revenge of fortune was this! 
AYhat condign poetic justice! Yerily the mills of 
the gods took on unusual speed while grinding 
with their usual fineness! Six years, then four, 
then six again, — sixteen years in the senate of the 
United States — such was John P. Hale's great 



138 THE HALE STATUE. 

opportunity; that he sacredly improved it in faith- 
ful, fearless service for country, liberty, and human- 
ity, is his clear, safe title to enduring fame. 

It is the proud honor of J^ew Hampshire to have 
been the first in much of historic well-doing; but 
never was she more nobly first than when she 
elected John P. Hale as the first anti-slavery sena- 
tor of the United States, As such he stood alone 
in his place for two years, holding his own, all pano- 
plied as he was, in reason, wit, and good nature to 
attack or to defend. But there came by and by, 
from fair Ohio, to stand hj his side, Salmon P. 
Chase, another stalwart son of New Hampshire, 
and ere long appeared Charles Sumner, the joride 
of Massachusetts, to reinforce the two. And there 
they wrought together in their good work, and 
there they fought together the good tight — Hale, 
Chase, and Sumner — an immortal three! 

Thus, then, the beautiful and impressive memo- 
rial in bronze, in the unveiled presence of which we 
now stand, has full and glorious reason to be; for 
in the recent expressive words of Frederick Doug- 
lass, — honor ever be to the name of that great and 
noble freedman, freeman, and American citizen, — 
" iSTo statue of patriot, statesman, or philanthropist 
of our times will convey to aftercoming generations 
a lesson of moral heroism more sublime." 

The Chairman : — I cannot bring myself to the 
point of formally introducing to a New Hampshire 
audience the next and last speaker. I can only 
say that, in looking over my list, I thought that 
Dr. Quint would be a good man to close the speak- 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 13^ 

ing, and that he would manage an audience sur- 
feited with good addresses better than any man 
with whom I am acquainted: The Kev. Dr. Quint, 
of Dover. 

BEV. DR. ALOKZO H. QUI?s^t'S ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairma^^ axd Citizens of :N"ew Hamp- 
shire: I hope I shall not long detain you from 
that doxology which is promised, but I have the 
floor, and you must trust to my generosity. I 
count it an honor to be invited to participate in the 
exercises of this occasion, when ]N'ew Hampshire, 
through the thousands of citizens here assembled, 
recognizes the greatness of one of its greatest sons 
great not merely because of his remarkable pow- 
ers, but because the application of those powers 
had its heroic and moral aspect, in which con- 
science and right seemed instinctive. If I had 
ever had a doubt whether I did right in voting in 
yonder legislative halls for the distinguished sen- 
ator now upon this platform, to represent this state 
in that high office, — of which I never had a doubt, 
—that doubt would have ended in seeing how the 
senator has intuitively interpreted the sentiments 
and qualified the desires of the people of I^ew 
Hampshire by placing this noble statue in these 
grounds. His act is an act for which the people 
of this state will be eminently grateful. The mem- 
bers of the legislature, in passing up this walk, 
may see the face of one who always stood for con- 
science and for right— a man who was willing to 
be set aside and stand alone, exposed to calumny 



140 THE HALE STATUE. 

and abuse, rather than surrender his convictions. 
Legislators can then properly enter yonder doors, 
and pass uncovered, as I always did, before the 
torn and scarred and bullet-riddled flags, and be- 
fore the portraits of nol)le sons of this state, who 
gave their lives upon the battle-field for the flag 
and liberty. 

That young boy who has to-day unveiled this 
statue has performed a notable act. He will re- 
member it during his life. He has promise, but he 
will have to contend with the fact, in attaining 
public success, that he has a father's and mother's 
father's memory with which to compete. 

In early life, that is, in my boyhood, I knew 
something of the man to whom we pay honor to- 
day. There was in him the peculiar genial qual- 
ities which drew young life to him. He attracted 
us. My father, from the same political party, went 
with John P. Hale in his separation from former 
associates. I remember hearing men discuss the 
little convention of old " liberty men," which met 
to consider whether to sustain him in his move- 
ment. Would that Moses A. and Jonathan Cart- 
land, Oliver Wyatt, and others like them, had sur- 
vived to be present on tliis occasion! I remember 
a special incident. I was often in the printing- 
office in Dover, where I learned to set type, and 
where Mr. Hale had a warm friend in the editor 
and proprietor of the political organ. The famous 
letter came, denouncing the proposed annexation of 
Texas. It was in type, and in the evening before 
the issue of the paper I saw " in proof' the editor's 
hearty commendation of the letter. You may fancy 



UNVElLi:SG CEREMONIES. 141 



my surprise in finding next morning, when the 
paper was issued, that the commendation had been 
cancelled, and that there had been substituted, if I 
remember correctly, a colorless statement that com- 
ment was deferred. It was learned that two dis- 
tinguished politicians had driven to Dover in the 
night and persuaded the reluctant editor to strike 
out the commendatory paragraph. Mr. Hale felt 
the defection of his staunch friend. 

My distinguished relative. Col. Daniel Hall, has 
told you with exquisite analysis and richness of 
thought the history of those struggles so far as 
Mr. Hale was the principal actor. He stood prac- 
tically alone. It seemed the end of his public 
career. But I believe that no allusion has been 
made to what I hesitatingly will refer to. I trust 
it will not be considered a violation of delicacy if 
I allude to the fact that many a man gets his 
noblest inspirations in the home circle, and that 
this man found, in his great sacrifice, the warmest 
support where he felt its value, and the strength- 
ening of a purpose to give up everything but honor 
—public office, party associates, future fame. 

I must say something for New Hampshire to- 
day, for :N"ew Hampshire is a grand old state. 
:N'ot the least of its glory is in that it sent this first 
anti-slavery senator to the senate-house. It was 
two years before another state did likewise; and it 
was four years, let it be remembered, before Massa- 
chusetts sent Sumner to reinforce the great pio- 
neer. Massachusetts is a great state, and we wel- 
come its people every summer to our great moun- 
tains. In all soberness, I certainly cannot forget 



142 THE HALE STATUE. 

certain relic-banners hanging listlessly in the state- 
house at Boston, nor the heroic dead who carried 
those flags, with whom it was my glorious privi- 
lege to be a comrade in long years of bivouac and 
battle. But ]S^ew Hampshire, my native state, gave 
the first anti-slavery senator. 'New Hampshire 
has usually been foremost in history. Men hear of 
Lexington and Concord, but it was in New Hamp- 
shire, four months earlier, that the first armed con- 
flict with the crown took place, when New Hamp- 
shire men captured the royal fort ""William and 
Mary" in broad daylight, against the fire of mus- 
kets and cannon, and with cheers pulled down 
the royal flag. It was a story which Mr. Hale 
used to love to tell, how ^ew Hampshire equipped 
John Stark's independent command which con- 
quered at Bennington, and thus secured the French 
alliance which gave us final independence. It was 
fitting that New Hampshire should lead in the con- 
test for human liberty in the senate of the United 
States. When the War of the Rebellion ended, 
the close of his twenty years' contest, it was signal- 
ized by the entrance of our troops into Richmond. 
Two loyal Southern women, who had long been 
under guard, saw the bayonets and the flag of the 
first entering regiment, and, with streaming eyes, 
kneeled down upon the pavement and thanked 
God for the sight. That first regiment was the 
Thirteenth ]^ew Hampshire. It was the suitable 
conclusion to the beginning of New Hampshire's 
great senatorship; and it was right that John P. 
Hale, who remembered his solitary entrance into 
the Capitol, should live to see the victory. 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 143 

John Parker Hale was worthy of Kew Hamp- 
shire, and N^ew Hampshire was worthy of John 
Parker Hale. This statue is to stand here in the 
heat of summer and the cold of winter, just as he 
stood in the storms of the great contest. When 
next Memorial Day comes round, let the comrades 
of the Grand Army of the Republic strew flowers 
at the foot of this statue, as being the memorial of 
one equally deserving with every man who fell in 
the flght or who lived to come home from the con- 
flict. 

The exercises, after four hours, were formally 
brought to a close by the chairman, but the audi- 
ence pressed around the platform and called for 
more singing, and Mr. Hutchinson, with Mrs. 
Abbie Hutchinson Patton,'^ who was present with 
her husband, sang various old songs of freedom, 
Mr. Douglass assisting in the service. 

The song " The Old Granite State " was asked 
for and rendered in the words here given, from a 
draft dated Bradford, ]N^. H., September 1.3, 1845, 
in the handwriting of Hon. Mason W. Tappan, as 
follows : 



* Mrs. Patton on the tenth day of September at Amesbury, Mass., 
again sung at the funeral of Mr. Whittier, and she died in New York 
city November 24, 1892, and was buried on the 2!)th, at Milford, N. II. 
John W. Hutchinson is the only survivor of the famous quartette of 
anti-slavery singers. If this memorial volume were not already too 
large the compiler would feel impelled to publish a gloAving tribute to 
the Hutchinson family, and esiiecially to the sweet woman singer, 
written by Mr. Frank B. Carpenter and published in the New York 
Home Journal of December 7, 1892. A brief sketch of the Hutchinson 
family is also published by Mayor P. B. Cogswell in the Granite 
Monthly for December, 1892. 



144 THE HALE STATUE. 

WELCOME TO HON. JOHN P. HALE. 

Tune — Old Granite State, as sung by tlie Hutchinsons. 

From each mountain top and valley, 
And from every street and alley, 
Let the friends of freedom rally, 

In the Old Granite State — 
To sustain the friend of freedom, 
To sustain the friend of freedom. 

In his conflict for the right. 

Come and let us swell the chorus 
While victory hovers o'er us — 
Tyrants all shall quail before us, 

In the Old Granite State. 
It shall ne'er be said by any, 
It shall ne'er be said by any, 

That New Hampshire's sons are slaves I 

John Parker Hale of Dover, 
John Parker Hale of Dover, 

In the Old Granite State, 
On the right of Petition, 
On the right of Petition, 
Like a true-hearted freeman. 

Gave his vote against the " Gag ! " 

And when Calhoun would annex us 
To slave-holding, slave-cursed Texas, 
That forever they might vex us. 

And perpetuate their crime. 
Hale opposed the deadly union, 
Kale opposed the deadly union. 
And refused the foid commission. — 

Let his name with honor shine ! 

And now when others falter, 
"Burn strange fire" on Freedom's Altar, 
Tamely creep, or meanly falter, 
In the Old Granite State ; 



UNVEILING CEREIMONIES. 1-15 

Still on Justice fimnly planted, 
Still on Justice firmly planted, 
He wUl face the Storm undaunted 
In the Old Granite State. 

May success crown each endeavor, 
May success crown each endeavor, 

Of Freedom's faithful friend. 
And sustain him we will ever, 
And sustain him we will ever, 

Till oppression's days shall end. 

Brave champion of Freedom, 
Brave champion of Freedom, 

In the Old Granite State, 
We give you now a welcome. 
We give you now a welcome, 

To our homes among the hills ! 

Bradford, N. H., September 13, 1845. 

Mr. John "W. Hutchinson next narrated reminis- 
cences of Mr. Hale, and spoke of his own personal 
relations with him. During the exercises he had 
suno* his ov/n tribute, as follows : 



O son of New Hampshire, thy fame cannot fade. 
In the hearts of our people thine image inlaid. 
This statue in grandeur now points to the sky, 
A lesson is teaching to each passer by : 
A lesson to battle with life day by day. 
And courage to conquer its foes by the way. 

We must stand like our granite, and moving be strong ; 
Let our glory live ever in story and song. 

In the hearts of our nation, as imbedded in gold. 
Our Rogers and Hale, and hundreds untold 
Of brave hearts who stood for justice and right. 
And in every reform its battle we 'U fight. 
New Hampshire stands foremost and mighty in fame ; 
She has left a fair record and glorious name. 
10 



146 THE HALE STATUE. 

Gone are slavery's days ; the oppressed ones are free, 
Forever to rest under liberty's tree. 
The brave men who stood forth in martial array 
Are falling ; like leaves they are passing away. 

But they stood like our granite, and in battle were strong ; 
Let their glory live ever in story and song. 

He whose statue to-day in honor we raise 
Bared his breast to the tempest in Freedom's dark days, 
And while through the world truth and justice prevail 
Shall be loved and be honored the memory of Hale. 

Tlien be true to our banner and liberty strong, 
That our glory live ever in story and song. 

Mr. Hutchinson also sang the verses composed 
for the occasion by that veteran freesoiler, Mr. 
George W. Putnam, of 130 Brookline street, Lynn, 
Mass., as follows : 

Here from our mountain homes we come, 
Heart answering heart, hand grasping hand, 

To honor one who stood for Right 
When darkness covered all the land. 

The tyrant's power with iron will 

Had hunted Freedom to her death ; 
And crouching low o'er patriot graves 

Their children spoke with bated breath. 

Around the Nation's Capitol 

The bondmen clanked their heavy chains ; 

And " Free Speech " died when Lovejoy's blood 
Crimsoned fair Alton's distant plains. 

Long years of dax'kness came and went, 

The weak still trampled by the strong. 
Until the cry went forth that we 

Had insult borne, and shame, too long ! 



UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 147 

And then that " man John — sent from God," 

Strong in the truth, and free and brave, 
Smnmoned — as with a trumpet call — 

Our buried manhood from its grave. 

Calmly he stood, awhile the storm 

Gathered along his darkling path. 
Denunciation's thunder tones, 

And hissing waves of human wi'ath. 

And while above, around, below, 

Tlie tempests raged and skies grew black. 
He faced the foe, and proudly bade 

The waves of tyranny roll back ! 

The true of heart, the strong of soul, 

With purpose grand around him came. 
And soon our valleys rang with songs, 

The mountain peaks were all aflame. 

Through the broad land his thrilling call 

Waked the old spirit of our sires. 
And kindled high in million hearts 

The flame from Freedom's altar fires ! 

In the proud nation's council hall, 

Thundering beneath its lofty dome, 
He met the swelling tide of crime. 

Like granite of his mountain home. 

Well we recall his burning words 

For Freedom, when, with banners high. 
And beating drums, and bugle peal. 

The Hampshire troops marched southward by ! 

Marched southward — telling all the world 

To place on Freedom's brow her crown ; 
With cannon's boom, and flashing steel. 

The mountain men were coming down ! 

And when Great Fi-eedom's work was done, 
And red with blood were land and sea. 



148 THE HALE STATUE. 

The wide earth heard the crash of chains, 
And shouts of ransomed millions, free. 

But of the brave who came not back, 
Remember that their lives were given 

To save a nation's priceless life. 

The noblest cause of Earth and Heaven ! 

And so to-day, with speech and song. 

And cannon's voice, and chime of bells, 
We come with joy to strew afresh 

His grave with Freedom's immortelles ! 



APPENDIX 



I 



APPENDIX. 



LETTERS, INTERVIEWS, AND COMMENTS. 
[From John G. Whittier.] 
Hampton Falls, N. H., July 28, 1892. 
To His Excellency Grovernor Tuttle : 

It is a matter of very great regret to me that I find my- 
self unable to be present at the unveiling of the statue of 
the great New Hampshire senator, who so richly deserves 
the honor. No man knows better than myself how bravely 
and wisely he bore himself in the revolt and conflict which 
placed his state permanently on the side of freedom. He 
broke the chains of party, and set free the best and worthi- 
est of the JefEersonian Democracy to speak and vote as 
their better instincts and consciences inclined them. His 
victory made all the after successes possible which culmin- 
ated in the abolition of human slavery and the establish- 
ment of the Union on an unmovable basis. 

As one of the few now living who had the privilege of 
acting with him in that memorable struggle, I am glad to 
bear my testimony to the ability, eloquence, and devotion 
to principle of the man whose place in the Pantheon of his 
state has the permanence of her granite mountains. 
I am truly and respectfully thy friend, 

John G. Whittier.* 



* Mr. Whittier died at Hampton Falls, September 7, 1892, ami was 
bviried on the 10th at Amesbuiy, Mass. In a brief but impressive 
account of his funeral, by Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, to be found in the 



162 THE HALE STATUE. 

[From Frederick Douglass.] 

Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D. C, June 29, 1892. 
Hon. W. E. Chandler : 

My Dear Sir : — I would gladly obey your call to Con- 
cord on the 3d of August. The occasion stirs my heart and 
memory. No statue of patriot, statesman, or philanthropist 
of our times will convey to after-coming generations a les- 
son of moral heroism more sublime than that proposed to 
be unveiled of John P. Hale, on the third of August. I 
remember well the man and his works, and it may be that 
I can be present and bear my testimony on the occasion of 
the unveiling, but I am not now in a condition to po&itively 
promise. 

Very truly yours, 

Frederick Douglass. 



[From Nathaniel S. Berry.] 

Bristol, N. H., July 30, 1892. 
Crov. Hirmn A. Tuttle : 

My Dear Sir : — As it is very uncertain whether I shall 
be able to meet you in Concord on the 3d of August, as 
invited, allow me to say a word to you in regard to my 
friendship and esteem for John P. Hale. From 1818 to 



New Enyland Magazine for January, 1893, it is stated tliat John and 
Abby Hutcliinson (with Mr. Patton) attended the quiet Quaker service, 
and tenderly sung the chant, " Close his eyes, his work is done. Lay 
him low." 

On Mr. Whittier's 80th birthday, December 17, 1887, he received a 
picture with this inscription, " John P. Hale Chandler sends birthday 
greeting to Mr. Whittier, from whom the boy, like his grandfather, 
shall learn to love nature, to revere humanity, to pity the down- 
trodden, and to trust the Eternal Goodness." Mr. Whittier, in 
acknowledgment, wrote on the margin of one of the printed cards 
which he sent out to the numerous friends who had congratulated 
him. these words: "I had no visitor more acceptable on the 17tli than 
the grandson of my old friend, John P. Hale. I thank his father for 
sending him. I am truly tliy friend, John G. Whittier." 



APPEKDIX. 153 

1840 I voted with the Democratic party. In 1840 I was 
elected a delegate and attended the national convention 
held in Baltimore, and there learned, from the demands 
made by a leading member from Tennessee and the doings 
of the convention, that the extension and strengthening of 
the institution of slavery was the first principle acted upon 
by the party leaders, and not, as I had always hoped and 
believed, the desire to devise and carry out measures by 
which our nation should be freed from that great crime. I 
then said that I could not any longer vote to aid the Demo- 
cratic party. When Mr. Hale, as a Democratic member of 
congress, voted against the annexation of Texas, giving his 
reasons therefor, I thought he was right, and when in 
obedience to the demands of Southern leaders, he was 
denounced, and his nomination for a second election as rep- 
resentative, which had been made, was revoked by the 
party leaders of this state, I did all I could to sustain him 
and his action. Soon after, I consented to have my name 
used as a candidate for governor by the Liberty or Free 
Soil party, with no thought of ever being elected to the 
office, but I did receive votes enough to prevent an election 
by the people, and during the following months I was 
waited upon by Harry Hibbard and other leading men in 
the Democratic party, who assured me that with the four- 
teen Liberty or Free-Soil members elected to the state 
legislature every Democratic member would vote for me as 
United States senator, rather than have Mr. Hale elected, 
and they urged me time and again before the legislature 
assembled to accept. I replied that I would not consent, 
but would do all I could for Mr. Hale's return to congress. 
No person in this state did more to forward the success and 
triumph of the Republican party than Mr. Hale, and I am 
very glad that his statue is to be placed in the state house 
j^ard. If I am permitted to be present for a little time 
during the unveiling, it will be very gratifying to me. 

I am very truly yours, 

N. S. Berry. 



154 THE HALE STATUE. 

[From A. P. Putnam.] 

Concord, Mass., Aug. 5, 1892. 

My Dear Sir : — From the circumstance that I liave 
recently had some correspondence with you about certain 
genealogical matters in which we were alike interested, I 
dare say it was yourself who kindly sent to me a copy of 
yesterday's Ne-w Hampshire Republican^ published in your 
city, and containing a full report of the proceedings at the 
unveiling of the memorial statue of John P. Hale, at Con- 
cord. I am particularly glad at receiving such an account 
of an occasion which must have been very impressive, as it 
was certainly one, also, that reflects great credit upon all 
who had to do with it. ' Senator Chandler's gift to the state 
is one for which thousands on thousands in other sections of 
the Union besides his own will thank him, and Colonel 
Hall's address is a noble and most important contribution 
to the history of the anti-slavery struggle. All the speak- 
ers rose to the hour, and one reads their eloquent words 
with a fresh and increased appreciation of the exalted worth 
of the man they so fitly honored. 

The old Granite State has had an abundant share of 
illustrious names, as we all know, but I do not recall one of 
them that seems to me more deserving of lasting remem- 
brance and praise than that of John Parker Hale. It re- 
quired a vast deal of moral courage to withstand and fight, 
single-handed as it were, the pro-slavery oligarchy and 
party, there in New Hampshire, in 1845. To all human 
seeming, it meant political ostracism and ruin. Few would 
have ventured the contest, even for dear Liberty's sake, so 
proud and tyrannous and fierce was the power which was 
then in rule. But the man from Dover was not only a true 
lover of Freedom and of his race, but he was also one who 
knew no fear, and was perfectly willing and ready to sacri- 
fice himself for a just and holy cause. It thrills me, even 
now, to recall the lofty and coui'ageoas spirit with which he 
threw down the gauntlet, and went before the people with 
his magnificent appeal. 



APPENDIX. 155 

For I was no indifferent or remote observer of what was 
then and there going on. In 1844 and 1845, I was a stu- 
dent at Pembroke, N. H. Party spirit then ran very high, 
and the Polk Democracy was as arbitrary as it was all pow- 
erful. The boys at the academy entered into the contro- 
versies and excitements of the time with earnest zeal, shar- 
ing in due proportion the names and sentiments of the 
various organizations that divided the people. It was a 
notable epoch when " Jack Hale " began his fight, and I 
well remember how a good number of the students quickly 
sided with him, and how stoutly they contended, in their 
own way, for the principles he represented, and for himself 
as the leader of the new, independent movement. Colonel 
Hall, in his exceedingly interesting and admirable address, 
gives an account of the famous encounter, at the old North 
church in Concord, between Mr. Hale and Franklin Pierce. 
It was but a few miles away, and some of us students went 
to see and hear. It was, indeed, a memorable scene. Not 
alone a very large number of the citizens of Concord, but 
hundreds of farmers from surrounding towns and from more 
distant places, crowded to listen to Freedom's rising orator 
and defender. In later years it was my good fortune to 
hear him speak on many occasions, but I never heard him 
when he appeared to better advantage, or seemed to me 
abler and grander, than in that ''battle of the giants." 
After the two hours' speech by Mr. Hale, there was a loud 
and persistent call for Mr. Pierce by the old Democracy, 
and presently the local chief of his party came forward and 
mounted the rostrum. His address occupied about as much 
time as that of his predecessor. It was able, pointed, and 
aggressive, having a tone of severity quite in contrast with 
the excellent spirit of the other. Pierce was pale, excited, 
and passionate, more or less frequently having to stop to 
cool his tongue with water, though it had no perceptible 
effect to cool his rage. I sat quite near the stage, so that I 
saw and heard the whole, and I could but think that the 
very clever Concord lawyer's anger was a little intensified 



156 THE HALE STATUE. 

in consequence of the fact that Mr. Hale, at the conclu- 
sion of his own speech, had quickly gathered up his papers, 
folded them under his arm, stepped down from the plat- 
form, and taken a seat in one of the front pews, where, 
with a calm and beaming face, and in a most imperturbable 
and manly spirit, he listened attentively to his antagonist's 
speech to the very end. Of course, Pierce's concluding 
words, like those of Hale, were followed by upi'oarious 
applause. Then it was that cries arose for the latter once 
more, to give answer to the attack which had been made 
upon him. It was a brief reply, for the hour was getting 
late, and the ground had been well covered before. Yet it 
was a most pertinent and effective word. I never knew the 
man to be more eloquent. Voice, look, manner, thought, 
language, and all, as he stood there on the seat of the pew 
he occupied and fronted the vast assemblage, went right 
home to the minds and hearts of his hearers in such wise 
that it was evident as he closed that he had captured the 
audience. The enthusiasm was far greater for him than for 
Pierce, or his cause or party. A huge swarm of people fol- 
lowed him as he emerged from the meeting-house and pro- 
ceeded to the village, full of admiration for the man and 
for what he had said and done. 

How little any of us who were there realized, at the time, 
that both of these sons of New Hampshire were at no dis- 
tant day to be candidates for the presidency, and that one 
of them was actually to be elected to the high office ! It 
was far easier to so divine the future as to see the advanc- 
ing and growing hosts of Liberty, with John P. Hale as one 
of its bravest and most gallant champions in all the long 
and tremendous warfare. That he was. He never be- 
trayed the sacred interests of justice and right. His ser- 
vice to humanity, his sei'vice to his country, was heroic and 
faithful and incalculable, and it is meet that his statue 
should rise at last at the very capital of the state that gave 
him birth. 

I did not intend to write so much. Taking it for granted 



APPENDIX. 1^* 

that you sent me the RepubUcmi that has come to hand, let 
me thank you heartily for it. I remain 

Very truly yours, 

A. P. Putnam. 
Hon. Geo. A. Ramsdell. 



[From Lakkin D. Mason.] 
South Tamworth, N. H., Aug. 5, 1892. 
Dear Mr. Chandler:— I had a splendid position last 
Wednesday to hear every word and consider every sugges- 
tion. Notwithstanding the many long and able speeches, I 
thoucrht possibly there were some things left unsaid, and as 
a glelner I followed the reapers and picked up a few heads 
which they missed, and have tied them up in a bundle and 
send them for your consideration. 

It was one of my best days on earth. I am nearly 
through with this life and hope to meet you and all the 
Hale family, and all the faithful soldiers in the late great 
moral struggle, and I would not object to have Frederick 
Douglass come in to give color to the occasion. 

Very truly, 
Larkin D. Mason. 

MR. mason's "GLEANINGS." 
From whatever standpoint we look back upon our coun- 
try's history, we find progress. This progress the great 
Brooklyn divine calls evolution. I think we are all ready 
to admit that society does not naturally drift heavenward, 
as a tree ^rows up in nature, but it is always more or less 
in conflict with everything that advances it to a higher 

plane of life. -^ • i 

Such a conflict always requires personal sacrifice in order 
to ensure victory. These great conflicts and victories have 
grown out of individual agonizing, out of the personal con- 
flicts of heroic souls with the powers of ignorance and 



158 THE HALE STATUE. 

wrong, of noble men who have stepped out of the. ruts of 
organizations and exposed themselves to calumny and cen- 
sure for the sake of the good they might do to society and 
the benefit they might confer upon their race. And it is a 
fact familiar to us all, that whenever the people were ready 
to advance, some man with special qualifications for the 
emergency has appeared upon the stage. 

Probably no man but Washington could have taken so 
feeble an army, so poorly equipped and supported, and have 
gained our independence. No man but Lincoln could have 
issued the Emancipation Proclamation at the time he did, 
and have been sustained in it ; and perhaps no other officer 
in the Union army could have subdued the Rebellion with- 
out any concession or compromise, but General Grant. 

I think it equally certain that there was no other man 
except John P. Hale who could have gone into the United 
States senate as early as 1846 and advocated the cause of 
universal liberty ; standing among slaveholders and possi- 
bly duelists, and there, without faltering, presenting the 
evils of slavery and the dangerous encroachments of the 
whole system of slavery, and afterward invited by the most 
radical slaveholders to go to their homes and spend the 
Christmas holidays with them. 

Mr. Hale never made an unkind expression toward his 
opponents, but always extended that courtesy which won 
their respect. Mr. Hale, from his early manhood till his 
death, never met an opponent and left him the victor. He 
treated the subject under discussion with such seriousness 
that he seldom failed to draw tears from his audience, and 
yet, if occasion called, he could improvise an anecdote that 
would place his opponent in an unenviable position. He 
could never be hired, coaxed, or driven to advocate that 
which he thought was wrong, or to hold his peace when 
error was present. 

It was my privilege, as early as 1845, to take my team 
and carr}^ him from one appointment to another among the 
hills of Carroll county. He went forth bearing precious 



APPENDIX. 159 

seed. He lived to return again rejoicing, bringing his 
sheaves with him. 

When Mr. Hale entered the political contest, slavery had 
such a controlling influence in this nation over parties, 
presses, and pulpits, that it required nerve to enter the con- 
test against it. When he had finished his work not a slave 
rattled his fetters or clanked his chains. 

He richly deserved the epitaph he desired to be read by 
the wife of his bosom and the children of his love, " This 
man sacrificed place and honor rather than bow down and 
worship slavery." 

To apply a sentiment original with President Lincoln, 
" We sincerely regret we cannot penetrate his resting place 
and bear to him the evidences of our heartfelt gratitude." 
I rejoice in this tribute of respect to the memory of the 
noble hero, and I heartily thank the distinguished son of 
New Hampshire for this appropriate act, and I thank the 
great God for putting it into his heart to do it. 



[From Chester B. Jordan.] 

Lancaster, N. H., Aug. 5, 1892. 
I knew much of Mr. Hale, and greatly admired his in- 
trepid spirit, his fearlessness in the cause of right, his lo}^- 
alty to his convictions and to his country and her best 
interests, and his love for humanity everywhere. But 1 
want the record where my little boys, when they become 
men, can know something of the first and staunchest New 
Hampshire defender of the rights and liberty of man. 

Chester B. Jordan. 



[From Caleb A. Wall.] 

Worcester, Mass., Aug. 2, 1892. 
To the Editor of the Daily Monitor, Concord, N. H. : 

Exceedingly regretting I cannot attend in person the ex- 
ercises to-morrow, in tribute to the memory of John P. 



160 THE HALE STATUE. 

Hale, I could not resist the temptation to express by letter 
something of my gratification that such a tribute is to be 
paid to one so worthy the admiration of the friends of Free- 
dom all over the country. I am one of those enthusiastic 
admirers of the pioneers in the anti-slavery conflict, who 
have watched their course from the beginning with great 
interest, and none of them deserve more credit for boldness 
and efficiency in speech and action than the distinguished 
senator from New Hampshire, in and out of congress. It 
was my good fortune to hear the great speech he made in 
our city (then town) hall, Oct. 13, 1846, soon after his elec- 
tion as senator, over an opposition of unexampled note, and 
the report of that speech is the first one I ever made in my 
fifty years' experience as a newspaper man. How the 
echoes of that speech still ring in my ears I It was some- 
thing after the style of his reply to the attacks and denun- 
ciations of Franklin Pierce, Isaac Hill, and other champions 
of the slave power of that time. 

In looking over the files of newspapers for 1845, I find an 
item, probably contributed by myself, containing the fol- 
lowing extract from a speech then made by Mr. Hale in 
answer to his antagonists and former friends, who had ex- 
communicated him from their support because of his opposi- 
tion to pro-slavery measures : 

"In conclusion, I may be permitted to say that the 
measure of my ambition will be full, if, when my earthly 
career shall be ended and my bones are laid beneath the 
soil of New Hampshire, and when my wife and children 
shall repair to my grave to drop the tear of affection to my 
memory, they may read on my tombstone, ' He ivlio lies 
beneath surrendered office^ place^ and poiver rather than bow 
down and tvorship slavery.'' " 

These were indeed fitting words with which to close that 
memorable controversy, which, it is said, lasted all night ; 
the triumph of Hale before the people, over the myrmi- 
dons of the slave oligarchy in the persons of Pierce, Hill, 

and others. 

Caleb A. Wall. 



APPENDIX. 161 

[From the Worcester Spi/ of July 31, 1892.] 

Mr. Wall then referred to the matter of the dedication 
next Wednesday, in Concord, N. H., of the monument to 
that eloquent pioneer champion of human rights, John P. 
Hale, tlie first Free Soil senator in congress, and Free Soil 
candidate for president in 1852. A well deserved tribute 
was paid to Mr. Hale, for his fidelity, boldness, and effective 
advocacy of the cause of freedom during his sixteen years 
in the senate, and as a platform speaker, A sketch of Mr. 
Hale's powerful speech in the City hall in Worcester, 
October 13, 1846, after his first election as United States 
senator, over the pro-slavery Democracy of the Granite 
State, led by Franklin Pierce, was read, to show the qualit}' 
of Mr. Hale as a speaker. 

Mr. Wall closed his eulogy of Mr. Hale by reading lines 
of poetic tribute to him by a son of the Granite state, in 
which were the following beautiful stanzas, expressive of 
the modest wish of the deceased illustrious champion of 
human rights : 

" When kind affection e'er shall place 
An humble shaft above my grave, 
These simple words are all I ask — 
'He sought to help the helpless slave.' 

" He lived to see the good work done, 

The land redeemed from slavery's thrall ; 
No more the scourge of whips and chains. 
But freedom reigning over all." 



[From John D. Lyman.] 

The unveiling of the statue of the brilliant, brainy, and 

whole-souled John P. Hale reminds me of my^first vote for 

member of congress. I have never since seen so much 

interest, or excitement so intense, about the election of 'a 

member of the national house of representatives. Hale and 

Pierce were the two most gallant and prominent Demo- 
11 



162 THE HALE STATUE. 

cratic leaders at this time in the state. Hale had served 
one term in congress, and, according to nsage, had been 
re-nominated. After this nomination he had addressed his 
celebrated letter to his constituents in opposition to the 
annexation of Texas without some provision against slavery. 
A convention, managed by Pierce and other leading Demo- 
crats, had been called, at which Hale's nomination had been 
repudiated and John Woodbury nominated in bis place. 
New Hampshire had not then obeyed the law of congress 
requiring the states to be districted for congressmen, and 
they were voted for on a general ticket. In ray town, Mil- 
ton, at the preceding presidential election in November, the 
Polk electors had received forty-five votes, the Clay elect- 
ors, ninety-four, and the Free Soil candidate, twenty-seven. 
Hale's letter and his repudiation inspired the Whig leaders 
with hope and enthusiasm, rejoiced the Free Soilers, led 
away a part of the Democrats, and enraged the others. 
These last named denounced Hale in language more vigor- 
ous than polite as a renegade and traitor. All were earnest. 
My political views were largely centered in love of protec- 
tion, the " American System " as advocated by Clay, Web- 
ster, and other famous statesmen of that and earlier days, 
and in my hatred of human slavery. 

I did not consider Hale sound on the question of protec- 
tion, and disliked his opposition to the West Point Military 
academy, his support of James K. Polk, pledged to the 
pro-slavery schemes of the South, and his opposition to the 
law of congress requiring the election of members of con- 
gress by districts. But on the other hand, I far more dis- 
liked the idea of his being defeated for doing right in refus- 
ing to further bow down to the domineering and wicked 
slave power. 

When our leading Whigs found me electioneering for 
Hale, their appeals for me to stick to the Whigs were the 
most earnest and intense political entreaties I have ever 
received. It seemed that they could not give me up. So 
provoked were they that for several years they defeated me 



APPENDIX. , 163 

whenever my friends nominated me for any office. I need 
not say that my active work for Hale disgusted the regular 
Democrats, for they hated him with a newer and hotter 
hatred than they did their old antagonists, the Whigs, 

But Milton did well that day, for Woodbury received only 
thirty-one votes, while Hale received seventy-three, outrun- 
ning in this strong Whig town, all other congressional can- 
didates. 

Going home to vote in 1853, I was greatly surprised at 
being elected representative, for the town had never elected 
so young a man, and T had not heard my name mentioned 
in connection with the office. All shades and grades of the 
opposition in the house that year, I think, numbered about 
seventy-nine, with eleven Democratic and one opposition 
senator. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused 
the indignation of the free states before the election of 
1851. To the remarkable legislature of that year I was 
elected, running, I think, some forty votes ahead of our 
state ticket. This session of 1854 was to the Democrats 
what Gettysburg was to the rebels. Pierce was president. 
The able Charles G. Atherton, known as " Gag" Atherton, 
had died, and Moses Norris's term would expire the next 
March, thus leaving the charming mannered and yielding 
president between the npper and nether millstones of the 
forces of liberty and slavery. The opposition in this legis- 
lature consisted of Whigs, Free Soilers, and Independent 
Democrats, who united upon Mason W. Tappan for speaker, 
and we then and now believe that we would have elected 
him but for from one to three traitors in our ranks, who 
enabled Frank R. Chase to be elected without a vote to 
spare. 

A disappointed Democrat from Newington voted scatter- 
ing. The election of two senators was the great absorbing 
object of the Democrats, and to defeat these elections, and 
keep the senatorial seats vacant till the next year, when the 
opposition felt sure they could fill them with liberty-loving 
men, was the great object of the opposition. So intense a 



164 THE HALE STATUE. 

strain for so many days I have never since felt. The long- 
time dominant Democracy, backed by the power of a 
national Democratic administration and the slave power, 
with a New Hampshire president, exerted its utmost power 
of persuasion and other arts in vain. It was one continuous 
strain. Generally a caucus every niglit, with a statement of 
every member's whereabouts. One of our men went home 
one night, and bidding his dying wife a last good-bye hast- 
ened back to vote. Who can look back upon that session 
and not feel proud of New Hampshire ! George W. Nes- 
mitli was our manager-in-chief, Daniel Clark our eloquent 
exhorter, and Mason W. Tappan and others our earnest 
field marshals. Honored and lamented leaders I Thus by 
earnest labor were our senatorial seats saved to be filled at 
the next session by John P. Hale and James Bell. Thirty- 
eight years have passed since that eventful session, but in 
all these years no lover of slavery or sympathizer with 
rebellion has sat in the national senate as a representative 
of New Hampshire. 

Since the advent of our Saviorir has there ever been any 
other thirt3-eight years so crowded and crowned with 
events so momentous and progressive ? 

J. D. Lyman. 



NEWSPAPER INTERVIEWS. 

[From The 3Iomtor, July 30, 1892.] 

Hon. Sylvester Dana, of this city, was intimately ac- 
quainted with the late John P. Hale. He was associated 
with him politically, and was very close to him in social 
relations. The invitation upon which the late Mr. Hale 
visited Concord, and made his famous speech in the Old 
North church on election day, June 5, 1845, was written by 
Judge Dana. It was signed by six prominent citizens, who 
had previously acted with Mr. Hale politically. Large 



APPENDIX. 165 

hand-bills were posted in Concord and vicinity, giving 
notice of the meeting, ending with the prophetic stanza, 
afterwards so well fulfilled, 

" Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers." 

The judge remembers distinctly to have seen Mr. Hale as 
he entered the church edifice. He was escorted by the late 
James Peverly, a resident of this city, then a prominent 
trader here and a very estimable gentleman. 

The house was crowded, the legislature having adjourned 
to allow members to attend. The Whigs had previously 
held a convention in the building, and the platform erected 
for the purposes of it still remained. It was from this plat- 
form that Hale made his memorable speech. He was not 
introduced to the audience, but immediately upon his arrival 
came forward and began his remarks. The newspapers 
and documents to which he made reference were wrapped 
in a large red silk handkerchief. He spoke with great 
earnestness and force, and was greeted with frequent ap- 
plause. His peroration was especially cheered. He occu- 
pied more than two hours, and was listened to throughout 
with intense attention. 

As Judge Dana remembers Mr. Hale on that day, he 
was a rotund, well-proportioned man, weighing more than 
two hundred pounds, symmetrically and strongly built ; 
handsome and prepossessing in appearance. He had a 
smooth-shaved face, and a powerful and persuasive voice. 
His gestures were graceful and frequent, and he seemed to 
be thoroughly absorbed in the great issue that he so ably 
discussed. His subject was the vindication of his vote 
against the annexation of Texas as a slave state to the 
Union. Hale took strong ground against such annexation. 
It was plain from the beginning to the end that Mr. Hale 
had perfect command of himself, and perfect command of 
his subject. 

When he had concluded his speech, he came down from 



166 THE HALE STATUE. 

the platform and took a seat in a pew immediately in front. 
Then the late Franklin Pierce, afterward president, as- 
cended the platform and answered Mr. Hale, speaking 
something over an hour. Pierce, as is well known, was a 
polished orator, and represented his side of the case as well 
as any man could do it. He urged all available arguments 
in justification of the annexation, and criticised Mr. Hale's 
course severely. When he had concluded, Hale stood upon 
the seat where he had been sitting, and facing the audience, 
replied. He spoke perhaps five minutes, his remarks being, 
as Judge Dana says, the most eloquent that he ever heard 
fall from human lips. His closing sentence, as Judge Dana 
remembers it, was as follows : "When filial affection shall 
erect an humble monument to show where rest my mortal 
remains, I wish upon it no other epitaph than this : Here 
lies one who surrendered oflBce, place, and power, rather 
than bow down and worship slavery." 

He had the sympathy of a sincere following, and those 
who heard him then were not surprised that he should 
become chief of the great anti-slavery leaders. 

Although the meeting was largely attended, there were 
many people in Concord who were busy on election day, 
and were unable to hear the great orators. Hale and Pierce, 
and Mr. Peverly and others thought it desirable that Mr. 
Hale should visit Concord again when people could have a 
better opportunity to listen to him. It was arranged that 
he should be present on the afternoon of the next Thanks- 
giving day in November. He came then, and delivered an 
address in the old court house (town hall), which was 
packed to overflowing. It was a very able speech that he 
made, and is remembered by many of our citizens. 

Hardly had this second meeting closed when Carlos G. 
Hawthorne, of Hopkinton, sought the statesman, and ac- 
quainted him with the fact that arrangements had been 
made for a meeting in Hopkinton, to be addressed by him 
that evening. The air was chilly, and Mr. Hale was wet 
with perspiration from his efforts in the town hall here, but 



APPENDIX. 167 

he consented to accompany Mr. Hawthoi'ne, which he did 
in a chaise, and addressed a large and intelligent audience 
in the old Academy hall in Hopkinton village. 

The interest in Concord was such that Judge Dana and 
others chartered a four-horse stage-coach, and attended the 
meeting there. 

His remarks at Hopkinton, Judge Dana says, were in 
some respects even more impressive than those made at 
Concord, his speech there dealing more especially with the 
moral aspects of the great question of human slavery. 



[From The Monitor, August 2, 1892.] 

Hon. Henry P. Rolfe, of this city, now beyond three- 
score-and-ten, is blessed with a remarkable memory. For 
many years he was prominent in the practice of his pro- 
fession, and in the politics of New Hampshire. Associated 
personally, as he was, with many of the central figures dur- 
ing important epochs in the history of our state, his remin- 
iscences are very valuable. In conversation to-day, he 
spoke very feelingly on the subject that just now is being 
revived so pleasantly and profitably, that of the work and 
worth of the late John P. Hale, whom the splendid statue 
to be unveiled in the state house park next week is to com- 
memorate. Having paid a tribute to Senator Chandler for 
his generous appreciation of Mr. Hale, Mr. Rolfe's talk was 
caught stenographically, and with his permission made 
available, as follows : 

In the latter part of the summer of 1842, during my 
vacation while fitting for college at New Hampton, I 
attended court one week at Laconia, then Meredith Bridge. 
His Honor Judge Tebbetts presided. Hon. Henry Y. 
Simpson and Hon. Thomas Cogswell were side judges. I 
had never been in a court room before, and everything that 
transpired was to me novel. I saw there, for the first time, 
John Parker Hale, then in the practice of the law in Dover. 
He was thirty-six years of age, had been United States 



168 THE HALE STATUE. 

district-attorney seven years, having been appointed by 
General Jackson in 1834, and afterward removed by Presi- 
dent Tyler in 1841. He was the finest appearing man I 
ever beheld, about five feet, eleven inches tall, neatly 
dressed, of perfect form, hair black and straight, face some- 
what florid, and a countenance beaming all over with emo- 
tion and expression, and his manners were elegant. 

I heard him try several cases before the jury. When the 
court was not in session, I kept as near him as I could, to 
hear all he said. When he addressed the court his lan- 
guage was refined, and his arguments to the jury could 
hardly be resisted. Everything he said, everything he did, 
seemed to me to carry an irresistible charm with it. I 
heard him say out of court that Judge Tebbetts was the 
most perfect exemplar of a trial judge that he had ever seen 
upon the bench. He said to him during a trial, where the 
judge ruled against him, "Your honor holds the law differ- 
ently from what I understand it, but I bow with perfect 
respect to your honor's decision," at the same time bowing 
with a graceful dignity and urbanity which must have de- 
lighted the court. It certainly delighted me. He tried a 
case before the jury wherein a brother of General Tuttle, of 
Meredith, was a party, and there were two witnesses in the 
case by the name of Chattel. They testified against his 
client's interests, and in his argument he spoke- of them in 
a most sarcastic way as " these living Chattels." 

William C. Clarke was then practising at Meredith 
Bridcre. He was afterward attornev-general of the state 
for several years, possessing as fine a personal appearance 
as one would wish to look upon, but Mr. Hale eclipsed him 
entirely. The next spring after this Mr. Hale was elected 
a member of congress, and in 1844, Polk was elected presi- 
dent, and President Tyler was moving every available force 
to annex Texas; and, to the surprise of many, Mr. Hale 
opposed the annexation. He served two yeai's as a member 
of congress, and when nominated for a second term wrote 
his constituents that if they wanted a representative to vote 



APPENDIX. 



169 



for the annexation of Texas they must choose another man. 
Another man was nominated, and Mr. Hale joined issue 
with the Democracy. He was defeated. Then followed 
the great contest in New Hampshire which made Hale im- 
mortal. The history of that contest is known everywhere, 
and John P. Hale is known as the gallant political pioneer 
who first assaulted the bulwarks of American slavery. He 
went before the people of New Hampshire in the campaign 
of 1845, and in that of 1846, and won in the last. He was 
elected a member of the legislature from Dover, speaker of 
the house, and United States senator for six years from 
March 4, 1847. 

In June, 1845, during the session of the legislature, in 
the Old North church, came off the contest between him 
and Gen. Franklin Pierce, the most renowned of any in the 
country, except that in 1858 between Stephen A. Douglas 
and Abraham Lincoln. 

In the year 1872, being then in Dover on business as 
United States district-attorney, I was, by Mr. Joshua Var- 
ney, in his tailor's shop, introduced to Mr. Hale as one who 
formerly occupied the office I then held. He was at lei- 
sure and so was I, for the afternoon. I referred to the time 
and the circumstances when I first saw him at Meredith 
Bridge. He at once became very communicative, told me 
of his ministry in Spain, his entrance into the United States 
senate, and other incidents ; but the interesting and thrilling 
part of his conversation was in regard to his meeting in 
Concord in the Old North church. He had been invited by 
some one,— Judge Dana, I think,— to come to Concord, and 
make a speech to vindicate himself. I will tell the story as 
he told it, as near as I can remember it. 

'^ I had been invited to go to Concord during the session 
of the legislature and make a speech to the citizens there. 
I was little acquainted with the people in that vicinity. I 
knew of George G. Fogg, James Peverly, Jefferson Noyes, 
Sylvester Dana, and a few others. I accepted the invita- 
tion, and when I reached Concord I was met upon the 



170 THE HALE STATUE. 

arrival of the stage coach by Mr. Peverly, Mr. Fogg, and 
two or three others. They waited upon me to the house 
north of the American House, and put me in a room on the 
back side of the house that looked out on a stage stable and 
stage yard, and left me, telling me when the time for the 
meeting should arrive they would call for me. When the 
time for dinner arrived, I was called and went down to din- 
ner, no one speaking to me or seeming to know me. No 
one called upon me till the time for the meeting. Then 
Mr. Fogg, Mr. Peverly, and Mr. Jefferson Noyes called for 
me. When I came out on the street it was still as Sunday, 
not a person to be seen except the three men that were 
with me, not a carriage anywhere in sight. We walked 
along in silence ; the gentlemen with me said nothing, and 
I said little to them. I was gloomy and despondent, but 
kept my thoughts to myself. As we turned around the 
corner of the old Fiske store, and I looked up and saw the 
crowd at the doors of the old church surging to get in, the 
people above and below hanging out of the windows, first a 
great weight of responsibility oppressed me, and in a 
moment more an inspiration came upon me, as mysterious as 
the emotions of the new birth. I walked into the densely 
crowded house as calm and collected and self-assured as it 
was possible for a man to be. I felt that the only thing I 
then wanted — an opportunity — had come, and I soon gath- 
ered that great crowd into my arms, and swayed it about as 
the gentle winds do the fields of ripening grain. That 
inspiration never for a moment left me. It followed me 
over the state, during the ensuing campaign, into the senate 
of the United States, remained with me there, and sub- 
sided only when the proclamation of President Lincoln 
declared that in this land the sun should rise upon no bond- 
man and set upon no slave ; and now when I turn my eyes 
heavenward, I can in imagination see hanging out from the 
battlements of Heaven the broken shackles of four millions 
of slaves, which for nearly twent}^ years I did all in my 
power to rend. 



APPENDIX. 171 

"• When I entered the senate I supposed every man's 
hand would be against me, but I very soon found a friend 
in Thomas H. Benton. I was one day speaking in the sen- 
ate on a subject I was not so familiar with as I ought to 
have been, when one of the pages handed me a note. I 
looked at it and found it was from Mr. Benton, containing 
just the important information I needed, and ever after this 
when I was speaking he would watch me, and if he thought 
I needed any facts he would come behind me and post me 
up, or send the information on a slip of paper which a page 
would place on the desk before me ; and what is most singu- 
lar, I never knew him to make a mistake, and I relied upon 
him as confidently as though I were reading it out of a 
book." 

In 1851, Mr. Hale and Richard H. Dana, Jr., were coun- 
sel for the men who were tried for the rescue of Shadrach, 
a fugitive slave in Boston. He was taken from the United 
States marshal and his posse, carried to a place of safety, 
and finally transported on the underground railroad to 
Canada. Mr. Hale and Mr. Dana made an able and tena- 
cious defence, and no convictions were obtained. Several 
years after, during the war, Mr. Dana was in one of the 
rural towns near Boston, when a gentleman accosted him 
with much cordiality, saying, " How do you do, Mr. Dana? " 
Mr. Dana returned the salutation with much civility, and 
said to him, "Sir, you have the advantage of me. I think 
I have met you somewhere before ; your face is somewhat 
familiar, but I cannot recall your name." " It is not 
strange," the gentleman replied, " for I do not think that I 
have met you since you and Mr. Hale defended the rescuers 
of Shadrach, the fugitive slave. My name is Mr. Blank. 
I was a member of the jury who tried them." "Indeed," 
said Mr. Dana, " I am delighted to see you." " I think," 
said the gentleman, " I never saw two gentlemen more 
anxious than you and Mr. Hale were about the safety of 
your clients." " Certainly we were," replied Mr. Dana. 
"But," said the gentleman, "I did not feel the kast 



172 THE HALE STATUE. 

anxiety in the world, I saw from the beginning that there 
was no danger of your clients' conviction." "Why not?" 
said Mr. Dana. " Because," said the gentleman, " I was the 
man who took Shadrach at the door of the court house, put 
him into a cab, and took him to a place of safety at Mr. 
Blank's in old Concord, and I concluded from the beginning 
of the trial that thei-e was no danger of those other fellows 
being convicted while I was on the jury." 

This story was told to me by Hon. Albert R. Hatch, of 
Portsmouth, and in 1886 I told the story to Judge Gray at 
Boston, and he confirmed the truth of it, for he said he had 
repeatedly heard Mr. Dana himself tell the stoiy substan- 
tially as I have told it. 



As Mr. Parker Pillsbury, of this city, one of the very 
foremost of the anti-slavery leaders, stopped a moment to 
look deferentially at the Hale statue as it was being put in 
position, his mind must have filled with memories of that 
important epoch in our national history in which he him- 
self was so intensely interested and took so active a part. 
He sacrificed almost everything to the cause of freedom, 
and among the able lecturers who canvassed the country 
there was no more vigorous thinker, more forcible writer, 
or more devout devotee to the interests of humanity. 

Mr. Pillsbury is comparatively little known to the rising 
generation, but he was one of the foremost characters in 
the great American crisis wherein Mr. Hale figured so con- 
spicuously. Mr. Pillsbury admired him, and respected him, 
and loved him, and as he stood there gazing upon the gran- 
ite and the bronze that are to perpetuate his honor, he 
seemed absorbed in deep and tender thoughts. 

This remarkable man was found soon afterward in his 
scholarly, well-conned library, at his home on School street, 
this city. Over his head, as the modest minister, editor, 
lecturer, and statesman sat there, hung an excellent portrait 
of Wendell Phillips. On one side was a copy of the famous 



APPENDIX. 173 

engraving entitled " Waiting for the Hour," representing 
the affecting scene of slaves gathered together, one of their 
number holding a watch, anxiously waiting for the minute 
to come when by the emancipation proclamation of Presi- 
dent Lincoln they were to be free. 

Not far from it hung a printed advertising poster, char- 
acteristic of the days when human beings were subjects of 
barter and sale and e very-day traffic. It reads as follows : 

RAFFLE. 

Mr. Joseph Jennings respectfully informs his friends and the public 
that at the request of many acquaintances he has been induced to pur- 
chase from Mr. Osborne, of Missouri, the celebrated dark bay horse, 
" Star," aged 5 years, square trotter and warranted sound ; with a new 
light trotting buggy and harness ; also the dark, stout mulatto girl 
" Sarah," aged about 20 years, general house servant, valued at $900, 
and guaranteed, and will be raffled for at 4 o'clock p. m., Feb. 1st, at 
the selection hotel of the subscribers. 

The above is as represented, and those persons who may wish to en- 
gage in the usual practice of raffling, will, I assure them, be perfectly 
satisfied with their destiny in this offer. 

The whole is valued at just what it is worth ; $1,500; 1500 chances 
at one dollar each. 

The raffle will be conducted by gentlemen selected by interested 
persons. Five days will be allowed to complete the raffle. Both of 
the above described can be seen at my store. No. 78 Common sti'eet 
(New Orleans), second door from Camp, at from 9 o'clock a. m. to 
2 p. m. 

First throw to take the first choice ; last throw remaining prize ; 
and the fortunate winners will pay $20 each for the refreshments fur- 
nished on the occasion. 

P. S. No chances recognized unless paid for previous to the com- 
mencement. 

Joseph Jennings. 

Mr. Pillsbury said : 

" I came into the movement in 1840, just at the time 
when the country was agitated with Texas. When the 
annexation of Texas came before congress, Mr. Hale was 
the only Democrat who voted against it. I was in the 
whirl, and Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor of the Herald of 



174 THE HALE STATUE. 

Freedom^ had been before that time, and there was a dis- 
satisfaction between him and some of the society, and he 
dropped the paper, so I had to pick it up out of the mud 
and dust, and carry it on. I remember very well Mr. 
Hale's course and position. I was editing the paper at the 
time, and lecturing a great deal besides, and he was rather 
our text, and I kept him before the people all I possibly 
could. 

" Of course there was a fragment of the Whig party in 
New Hampshire, and tliey saw their opportunity, and were 
pretty friendly to us, and so we had the support of New 
Hampshire, which had been almost unanimously Demo- 
cratic. We three, Stephen S. Foster, the editor, Nathaniel 
P. Rogers, and myself, were all of us Non-Resistants from 
principle, and the other two, Rogers and Foster, officers of 
the Non-Resistant society. We were all of us non-voters 
from principle, and we said, and we had reason to say, that 
the reign of Democracy was nearing its end in the state. 
I have no hesitation in saying that we three, non-voters 
though we were, undoubtedly had much more to do with 
the changing of the politics than any other three persons in 
it. In four years we had shaken the state pretty clean of 
that kind of Democracy, and John P. Hale was sent to the 
senate and kept there eighteen years, whereas, he was only 
in the house as a Democrat when they cast him out. 

" At that time I wrote him a letter. He was then in 
Washington. I told him that his course would be approved 
by the people of New Hampshire, and that I had been over 
the state so far, and understood so well the feeling, that I 
felt warranted in saying to him that he would be sustained, 
and I hoped he would not falter. It happened that just 
then the Hutchinson family, who were famous singers, were 
in Washington giving concerts, and he invited them to din- 
ner, and read them this letter as part of the entertainment. 
They were greatly pleased with it, ' For,' said they, ' we, 
too, are in the state and among the people of New Hamp- 
shire, and we know as well as he.' That, perhaps, is the 



APPENDIX. 175 

best incident I can think of, for I was editing and lecturing 
both, and running wherever there was a chance to have 
anything done. In that letter you got pretty much my 
whole temper and spirit. I wanted to give him a full view 
of it, and he deemed it of sufficient consequence in inviting 
them there to dinner to read it as a part of the dessert, and 
they were very much pleased with it. 

'"I was not here when he made his speech. I began in 
1840 on my mission of anti-slavery, and I never left off 
until the last slave was free. I do not remember ever to 
have had a conversation with Mr. Hale in my life. My 
wife once had a little correspondence with him on account 
of the Woman's Anti-Slavery society. 

" I have n't any recollections of Mr. Hale that would be 
worthy your noticing, only that whenever I had an oppor- 
tunity of hearing him, I improved it. I heard him in 
Massachusetts in two or three places, but never here. He 
stumped the country a great deal with very good success. 
The slaveholders could never get angry with him. They 
got angry with Charles Sumner, and tried to kill him, but 
Hale always kept them good-natured. He was a good deal 
like Tom B. Reed. Hale had that same vein of humor, 
rather cold, but always keen and effective. But I had per- 
sonal acquaintance with hardly any of the public men and 
grandees. I had two years and a half in England, or at 
least in Europe. I did accidentally once meet the queen, 
and called on the lord chancellor of Ireland, and had a fine 
interview with him." 

It was a very pleasant call that the writer had upon Mr. 
Pillsbury at his home, and the pleasure was heightened not 
a little when Mrs. Pillsbury, a very estimable lady, who has 
done much for charity, came forward with kindly greeting 
and to express her interest in the unveiling of the statue 
of Mr. Hale. She said : 

" An anti-slavery society was formed by a few of the 
women of Concord in the year 1838. It was called the 
Woman's Anti-Slavery society. It was a very unpopular 



176 THE HALE STATUE. 

society. Only those who had rare moral courage felt as 
though they could* belong to it. We used to have our meet- 
ings around at the houses of the different women. Occa- 
sionally we would have an anti-slavery fair or sale on a very 
small scale, to raise money to help send slaves to Canada, 
and help carry on the anti-slavery paper, the Herald of 
Freedom. We used to have colored people in the house, 
sometimes three days at a time, until we could get them 
away in the night to another place further toward Canada. 

" There were not many members of our society, for few 
dared to belong to it. The only members now living in 
Concord are Mrs. Amos Wood, Mrs. Nathaniel White, and 
myself. Some of the other members were Mrs. N. P. 
Rogers, Mrs. Mary Ann French, Mrs. John D. Norton, 
Mrs. Joseph G. Wyatt, Mrs. Esther Currier, Mrs. Enoch 
Perkins, Mrs. Elbridge Chase, and Mrs. Mary Ann Allison. 

"The society was in existence from 1838 to 1844. It 
was about the time the society was formed that we were 
talking of the annexation of Texas to the Union, and Mr. 
Hale lost his seat in the house. As I was secretary of the 
society, they thought I ought to write a letter to Mr. Hale 
telling him how much we indorsed his course ; and I ad- 
dressed him in this way. I said : The women of Concord's 
anti-slavery society wish me to write you, thus and so. 
He replied in an autograph letter. He said he was grati- 
fied to receive the letter, very much gratified, but first of 
all he wished to say how much more gratifying it was to 
receive a letter of that import from women than from ladies, 
for, he said, ' In my experience thus far with the world, I 
have found that there is this difference, — God made women; 
dancing-masters and milliners made ladies.' 

" When this letter came to me I opened and read it, and 
laid it in the record book of the society. I tied it between 
the pages and left it. Some one took my place as secretary, 
and book and all were lost. In after years when he called 
to see us in Concord, he would almost always make allusion 
to that letter, for he said it was the only one he ever 



APPENDIX. 177 

received wherein the writers wrote as women. He said it 
took women in those days to work for the slaves. As I 
wrote him in that letter I said something like this, — "We are 
all in sympathy with yon in this work that you have done, 
and were we allowed to vote, how zealously we should all 
vote that you should retain your place." 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 

[From a contemporaneous publication.] 

The death of Hon. John P. Hale, the distinguished and 
eloquent champion of liberty, took place Wednesday even- 
ing, November 19, 1873, after more than three years of 
serious illness and suffering. The record of his life is full 
of honor and heroism, and his noble services in behalf of 
the oppressed will never be forgotten, but will illumine the 
pages of American history with glorious lustre. 

The city of Dover made appropriate and sincere observa- 
tion of the sad funeral occasion, Saturday, November 22. 
Business was generally suspended, and large numbers of 
people from surionnding places, and many from various 
sections of New England, were present. An almost Sab- 
bath stillness reigned in the stricken city. Bunting draped 
in mourning was displayed at half mast, and at various 
places, and the bells tolled their solemn requiem as the 
ceremonies were in progress. 

At 1.30 p. m. family prayers were held at the late resi- 
dence of the deceased on Pleasant street, and the remains 
were then taken to the Unitarian church on Locust street, 
Rev. Thomas W. Brown, pastor. The church was filled 
with sorrowing people, long before the services began, 
including many distinguished persons from this and other 
states. The pulpit was draped in black and bore a floral 
tribute. At the foot of the casket was a cross of white 
roses with trailing smilax ; at the head, a very large crown 
of the same surmounted by a floral cross, and encircling the 
12 



178 THE HALE STATUE. 

plate a beautiful wreath. The plate was inscribed, " John 
Parker Hale, aged 67 years." 

The services were deeply impressive, and were conducted 
by Rev. Thomas W. Brown, pastor, assisted by Rev. John 
Parkman, of Boston, in former years pastor of the church 
and a personal friend of the deceased. The opening ser- 
vice was a chant by the choir, followed by selections from 
the Scriptui-es. 

Rev. Mr. Brown then delivered the funeral address, 
referring in an appropriate manner to the greatness of soul, 
the thrilling eloquence, the championship of the i-ights of 
the oppressed, the deep religious character of the deceased 
statesman, and closing with the words: 

" And now he rests ; his greatness and his sweetness 
No more shall seem at strife ; 
And death has moidded into calm completeness 
The statue of his life." 

Rev. John Parkman then gave some touching reminis- 
cences of his acquaintance with the deceased, thirty years 
ago, showing the lofty character and nobility of soul of Mr. 
Hale, and referred to his firm religious faith. 

The closing services were prayer by the pastor and a 
hymn sung by the choir. The remains were then taken in 
solemn procession to Pine Hill cemetery, which spot the 
deceased loved to visit and view the beautiful scenery it 
affords. 

The committal service was there jjerformed by Rev. 
Thomas R. Lambert, D. D., of Charlestown, Mass., of St. 
John's (Episcopal) church, a brother-in-law of the deceased. 

The pall bearers were Hon. E. A. Straw (governor), 
Hon. Walker Harriman, Judge Daniel Clark, Gen. Gilman 
Marston, Hon. George G. Fogg, Hon. Mason W. Tappan, 
Hon. E. H. Rollins, Hon. James Pike, Hon. Charles H. 
Horton (mayor), Hon. John H. White, Hon. Oliver Wyatt, 
and Benjamin Barnes, Esq. 



APPENDIX. 179 

MEMORIAL SERVICES. 

At the Unitarian church, Sunday morning, November 23, 
memorial services were held in honor of the late Hon. 
John P. Hale." The attendance was very large, including 
friends from all denominations. 

The usual services were given, the selections by the pas- 
tor and choir being appropriate and with especial reference 
to the occasion. 

[From a Sermon by Rev. Thomas W. Brown.] 
********** 
"Faithful unto Death." — Revelation 2: 10. I think that 
they who are accustomed to judge our f fiend's life (and 
perhaps of the motives of that life) by its successes instead 
of its sacrifices, are at fault in so doing. The successes 
came, indeed, as the divine Providence that guides the 
world, and its destiny sometimes permits such triumphs to 
follow upon human endeavor and righteous service. But 
the successes came, not without long waiting, and many, 
many dark days and deeds of sacrifice. Said one, who was 
not in political affinity with our departed friend, and whose 
testimony is therefore of the more value, " When Mr. Hale 
took his seat in the senate, he was almost alone, and had to 
combat, single-handed, against the political giants of those 
days. Sometimes he was met with labored arguments, and 
again by bitter reproaches. Sometimes those who were his 
peers would affect to ignore him, and again they would 
mercilessly denounce him, as advancing doctrines dangerous 
to the Republic. But he was not to be silenced, or intimi- 
dated, in the discharge of what he believed to be his duty. 
So high were his aims, and so conciliatory his manners, 
that before the close of his senatorial term he had beaten 
down the barriers of opposition and fairly conquered. * * 
He was thus not only the standard-bearer, but the pioneer 
of the North, in the senate." 

And all this is true. But who of us shall tell, who of us 



180 THE HALE STATUE. 

can even conceive, the immense cost at wliicli all this well- 
earned triumph was achieved? The alienations of old 
friends; the unjust suspicion of motives; the bitter sar- 
casms heaped upon his conscientiously avowed principles 
and purposes ; the loneliness of a position which left him, 
for a time, in a kind of banishment, and under party pro- 
scription ; the fierce fightings with temptations to yield, 
where to yield was treason to the right ; and the long, long 
catalogue of self-denials and self-sacrifices and resistances 
to the sophistry of self-seeking, in order to be the great and 
noble soul he was ; and, if it be true, as doubtless it is, that 
one who now stands foremost in that national chamber in 
which our departed friend won laurels which shall never 
fade, — but which reverent hands shall ever twine freshly 
about his venerated memory, — if it be true, I say, that such 
an one exclaimed, " Ah, Mr. Hale has said wiser, and done 
better, things than we all," is it not because he who is thus 
so justly eulogized icon his robes of glory and honor through 
much patiently endured mental tribulation? 

If, now, we analyze this greatness of his, this f/emdne 
heroism which compelled, in spite of themselves, the admira- 
tion, even of his political adversaries, we shall find it, I 
think, to be very largely of a moral character. Even of 
intellectual power, indeed, it is easy enough to see that he 
was a remarkable possessor ; and if the question were one 
of daring merely, of the bare courage to sa^ bold and 
startling things in his place in congress, few could equal 
him. But there was something beside and better than 
these, something as far above and beyond these as heaven 
is above and beyond the earth on which we dwell ; and this 
was his moral fearlessness. Indeed, it would almost seem 
as if he scarcely knew the meaning of the word fear. He 
must have known his danger. His friends at least knew of 
it, and had many fears for him. How could they help it? 
How could he help it ? Yet he never took so much as the 
slightest precaution against such danger. Others went 
armed, about the streets of the capital and into its perilous 



APPENDIX. 181 

suburbs ; and some of these, even, were attacked and as- 
saulted. But he, without a single weapon, without a single 
apparent feeling of the need of one, went everywhere and 
anywhere, alone and unguarded. We read to-day with 
a smile the threats which were fulminated against his life 
and safety. But they were no idle threats then; and still, 
walking in his integrity, panoplied by his mens sihi conscia 
recti, he was without fear as he was without reproach. 
Sullen looks, harsh threats, bitter invectives glanced off 
from his armor of proof, and left him as undismayed as he 
was unharmed by them. 

And this was the courage, not simply of the martial hero 
but of the Christian hero; not the mere daring of reckless- 
ness or passion, but of lofty principle. He knew himself to 
be right ; and thus to be on the side of Him who has 
pledged His Almighty power to the defense of the right. 
He knew, too, that the life or safety of man — of ani/ man — 
was of less consequence to the world and the truth than 
fidelity to duty and consecration to principle; and this is 
why he was fearless ; tliis is why, like a great apostle of 
tlie olden time, whose life he must often have studied, and 
whose fearless devotion to duty he so frequently emulated, 
he did not count his life, even, dear unto him, if so that 
he might win the right and the true. 

********** 

But what was the occasion, what the inspiration, of our 
friend's courage ? It was this : To set at defiance all the 
promptings of interest, and dare all the dangers of enmity, 
in behalf of the oppressed, the down-trodden, and the 
despised ; to stoop to lift up a mere chattel, that he might 
transmute it into a man ! And tlien, as if this were not 
enough, — as if his great heart were large enough, as it was, 
— to take in the needs of a people more numerous than the 
enslaved, he reaches out his hand in deprecation, and lifts 
up his strong voice in rebuke of that barbarous, that brutal 
custom, — since abolished through his instrumentality — of 
plying the cruel lash upon the bare backs of the seamen in 



182 THE HALE STATUE. 

our national ships. Could courage be sublinier than this, 
friends ? And yet, this was the courage which dwelt in the 
heart, this the temper that glorified the life, and will im- 
moitalize the memory, of him whom to-day we miss from 
among men. And is it not the pure instinct of justice, as 
well as of admiration, which prompts us to exclaim, 

" Thanks, for the good man's beautiful example, 
Who in the vilest saw 
Some sacred crypt, or altar of a temple 
Still vocal with God's law." 

How conspicuous an element, too, in our friend's great- 
ness, how largely contributive to the rich completeness of 
his character, was his wondrous self-control ! There was 
power in him, as we all know, fit to crush and wither at 
will ; and there must have been times, when to use that 
power, and perhaps to abuse it, must have been one of the 
strongest of temptations. But did any one ever know him 
to do this? No man, I think, was likely to have had 
stronger feelings than he, or more fierce uprisings of that 
nature in us, that leads to passionate, or at least to petulant, 
outbreak into sharp speech. No man, too, could have been 
more outraged in his better nature, not only at the sight of 
the wronsrs which were countenanced, but at the wrong-do- 
ings that were excused and approved by law or long estab- 
lished custom. And then there were the personal taunts to 
whicli he was at times' subjected, and tlie sarcastic allusions 
to professed principles, and the domineering spirit of oppo- 
sition to his views, and the thousand things beside, which 
were calculated to aggravate and annoy any man. But 
while these tilings must have sometimes provoked him to 
indignation, and indignant protest, and dignified self-asser- 
tion, yet I recall not a single instance in which he actually 
lost temper, or fell into passionate recrimination over them. 
Instead of this, his apparently imperturbable good humor, 
his conquering pleasantry, his witty retort, his manly dig- 
nity, and equipoise of temper were only made the more con- 



APPENDIX. 183 

spicuous by such instances and experiences. Of course I 
do not claim that he was perfect. No man that lives is 
that. But I do mean to say, that whatever may have been 
the inward struggle, and the undetected strife within his 
breast, he appears always to have been the victor. Nay, he 
often even disarmed opposition, and turned strife into 
silence, and passion into peace and friendliness, by the very 
contagion of his own inexhaustible good humor. And if it 
be true, as the Scripture alleges, that "he that is slow to 
anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his 
spirit than he that taketh a city," then he whom we to-day 
mourn was even mightier than many who wear the laurels 
of chivalrous conquest, gained upon some battle-field of 
worldly strife. 

But, co-existing with this dignity and equableness of 
temper of which I have just spoken, enriching and glorify- 
ing it, as well as all beside in his character — was his Chris- 
tian faith ; his trust, pure and unshaken, in the great God, 
who guides and governs all things. I am not aware, in- 
deed, that he had much to say about this Christian faith. 
Least of all, is he likely to have been one who would ever 
boast about it, or parade it before the gaze of others. That 
was not like him at all. But that he was filled and fired 
with it, I cannot see how any man who knew him can well 
doubt. In fact, his entire life is the sufficient evidence of 
this. What was that life, indeed, except a giving forth of 
itself for the good of others ; a deep and long devotion and 
fidelity to the advocacy and advancement of causes and 
interests, which, at the outset at least, seemed calculated to 
meet only with failure? And could he have lived such a 
life, could he have endured such wearying opposition and 
self-denial in the way of duty-bearing, except as he was sus- 
tained and nourished by a devout faith in God and the 
right ? 

He lived, it is ti-ue — and in this respect he was far more 
favored than are the majority of the great workers for 
humanity — he lived to see all, and more than all he had 



184 THE HALE STATUE. 

anticipated and lioped for, splendidly achieved. But in the 
helping to bring it all to pass, what discouragement and 
deferred hope ; what slow progress and persistent encounter 
of opposition ; what liability to misapprehension on the 
part of others, and half distrust of one's self, perchance I 
What a perpetual challenge to one's patience, too, and what 
a seemino-lv unending demand for effort and struggle I Yet 
he proved equal to it all. Not because he had faith in him- 
self simply — which every good man ought to have ; not be- 
cause he trusted in others merely, or in the final triumph of 
abstract principle ; but because he trusted in God, and 
leaned upon the arm which is Almighty. He himself 
might perish in the contest. All others might. But the 
right, and the true, and the good, must survive and succeed, 
though the heavens themselves fell. '' Time and myself" 
is said to have been the motto of one of the old Spanish 
kings, " time and myself against the world." " God and 
myself" seems to have been the motto of our departed 
friend, "God and myself against a whole universe of evil 
and wrong." And this faith of his conquered ; as all such 
faith in the Highest eventually must, by whomsoever 
cherished. 

But he is dead, alas ! this noble defender of the right , 
this champion of freedom, philanthropy, and human rights I 
Dead I did I say ? Nay, he has but just begun, in the 
highest sense, to live. Lives like his, — noble and Christian 
careers of usefulness and godly service, do not end at the 
gate-way of the grave. They cannot. There, on the con- 
trary, they commence to put on immortality; not alone the 
immortality of heaven, but that of earth. Dying, such men 
yet live. Passing on and up, they do but become the more 
imperishable possessors of the earth, which they have en- 
riched by their noble service. Their influence, their mem- 
ories, the inextinguishable grace of a something in them, 
which death only transfigures into a more enduring sub- 
stance, these all survive. Like the fragrance of flowers, 
which goes out into the air even when the flowers them- 



APPENDIX. 



185 



selves are crushed, or when they droop and die at the touch 
of some sudden bliglit— so the aroma of a good life sends 
out an incense of spiritual fragrance into the atmosphere of 
men's lives, which abides, and enriches, and influences long 
after the career of the departed has become little else but a 
memory. 

It is related of one of the early chieftains of a Scottish 
clan, that as he fell one day mortally wounded upon the 
field of battle, bleeding and gasping, his followers seemed 
ready to give way. All was lost, they thought, if he were 
to perish. But just then the glance of the expiring hero 
fell upon their wavering ranks, and, dying though he was, 
the spirit of a hundred heroes still burned in his heart. 
Raising himself heavily and most painfully upon his elbows 
and looking undauntedly and gloriously out upon his waver- 
ing band through the gathering mists of death, he exclaimed, 
"My children! My children ! I am not dead; lam only 
looking on, to see that you do your duty." 

So with the honored friend and leader who has just gone 
before us, and upon whose placid, peaceful countenance- 
typical of the undying peace into which he has entered — 
we looked for the last time yesterday. " Only looking on " 
upon us is he, " to see that we do our duty," as he so 
grandly did his. Looking on upon us, out of his grand and 
completed life of duty, and from his exalted seat in heaven ; 
looking on, too, to shame our shortcoming and wavering, 
and to stimulate our faith and steadfastness. And as we 
remember, that 

" Round his grave are quietude and beautj^ ; 
And the sweet Heaven above, 
The fitting symbols of a life of duty, 
Transfigured into love ! " 

let us remember, too, that this quietude, and beauty, and 
sweetness of peace, are to be our inspiration as well as our 
comfort, our quickening in the way of duty as well as our 
confirmation in the trust of that life everlasting, upon which 
he himself has so triumphantly entered. 



186 THE HALE STATUE. 

[From a Sermon by Rev. George B. Spaulding.] 

The followino; extracts are from a discourse commeraora- 
tive of the character and career of Hon. John Parker Hale, 
delivered in the First Parish church, Dover, N. H., on 
Thanksgiving day, November 27, 1873, by the Rev. George 
B. Spaulding: 

Let us, as best we may, bring back before us the charac- 
ter and career of our illustrious townsman, — the brilliant 
lawyer, the fearless, indomitable public leader, the untar- 
nished senator, the true brother and champion of his entire 
race, John Parker Hale. 

The first glimpse which I catch of him is full of pathos, 
and is most significant. In his early boyhood he lost his 
father, a parent tenderly loved and revered. It is said, by 
neighbors who sympathized with the boy in his early sor- 
rows, that for a long time he was wont to go forth at early 
morning hour, or in the solemn evening twilight, and kneel 
down by the father's grave to pray. The figure of that 
kneeling boy, in that rude graveyard, is the most fixed and 
prominent recollection which some have of him whom we 
honor to-day. 

If I know anything of New England character and of 
the power of New England training, I know that both have 
from the first been so distinctly religious that most of our 
great men have had their natures permeated with great 
religious sentiments and principles. I think of John 
Adams, taught in his infancy to repeat the prayer which he 
never after forgot to utter to the close of his magnificent 
career, "Now I lay me down to sleep;" I think of Web- 
ster, who, according to his own words, was taught to lisp at 
his mother's feet and on his father's knee, texts from the 
Scripture ; I think of this young boy, easing his breaking 
heart in prayers to God over his father's grave ; and I see 
how it was that one and all of them in all after life, despite 
all their mistakes, despite, it may be, the absence of an open 
and professed piety, manifested the presence and power in 



APPENDIX. 



187 



them of a profoimdly religious nature. In this I find the 
key to their characters. In this I see an explanation of 
that deep moral earnestness, that solemnity and grandeur, 
which came out in all their great speech and action. 
********** 
Mr. Hale was preeminently an advocate. His real place 
was before a jury. He understood law,— but its great prin- 
ciples rather than its technicalities. And these first he had 
mastered, not by close, severe study, but by a kind of intui- 
tive insight, coupled with a quick, retentive memory, which 
treasured up for his ready use decisions and arguments to 
which he had once listened, or of which he had once curso- 
rily read. As he stood up before the jury, not drilled to 
his task by painstaking care, but inspired by the occasion, 
by the very faces which confronted him, with his large, 
generous form, his free, open gestures, all lighted with a 
soul that was earnest with conviction, with words singularly 
facile, but terse and full of force, holding his flashing lance 
straight and steadily to the one point in the case, and driv- 
ing it home with his splendid bursts of feeling, he was well- 
nigh irresistible. He was full of imagination, but his 
imagery never blunted the edge of his blade, nor impeded 
the vigor of his blow. His speech was like an eastern 
scimitar, bi-ight and dazzling, and yet keen in edge, cutting 
to the marrow. 

Let me give you an instance : It was during one of those 
famous trials growing out of the rescue of the slave Shad- 
rach at Boston. Mr. Hale had read from the reports 
numerous decisions to the effect that slavery is against the 
laws of God, the law of nature, and the laws of England 
and Massachusetts. He also read from the laws of Vir- 
ginia and other southern states to show that a person of 
Shadrach's color (not a negro) is even there presumed to be 
free, and cannot be proved a slave except by evidence of 
descent from an African slave-mother, and that possession 
and holding of a slave did not afford a presumption of slav- 
ery. He then said, '' Now, gentlemen, it appears that there 



188 THE HALE STATUE. 

is no slavei-y by the law of England, by the law of Massa- 
chusetts, by the law of nature ; and these old judges say, — 
mind, your excellency, I do not say this ; it would be 
treason : so unequivocal a recognition of the higher law 
would be treason in me, — but these old judges say that it is 
against the law of God I Against all these laws, against all 
this evidence, against all these presumptions, comes one 
John Debree from Norfolk, Va., and says that he owns 
him ! This is all the evidence. The mere breath of the 
slave-catcher's mouth turns a man into another man's chat- 
tel! Suppose John Debree had said that he owned the 
moon, or the stars, or had an exclusive right to the sunshine, 
would you find it so by your verdict? But, gentlemen, the 
stars shall fade and fall from heaven ; the moon shall grow 
old and decay ; and heavens themselves shall pass away as 
a scroll, — but the soul of the despised and hunted Shadrach 
shall live on with the life of God himself I I wonder if 
John DeBree will say that he owns him then !" 

It is said that neither court nor marshals could check the 
long and tumultuous applause which followed. Here is 
finest wit and genuine humor, and vivid, bold imagination, 
and most felicitous language ; but under all, like an organ's 
peal, we hear the solemn movement of a profoundly eai'nest 
soul. 

I think that, as we follow the man on in his great career, 
and note those passages which have been and always will 
be treasured up as specimens of masterly power and elo- 
quence, we shall find that they, one and all, were spoken 
when his moral nature was most deeply stirred, when his 
soul quivered with a sense of God and his eternal and 
immutable truths. 

At the closing session of the twenty-eighth congi-ess, a 
resolution was introduced, under the stimulus of President 
Tyler's message, for the annexation of Texas as a slave 
state. It was not a measure of the Democratic party ; it 
was, rather, a personal scheme of the president's. It was 



APPENDIX. 189 

denounced by prominent Democratic congressmen ; and I 
think that the testimony of the party in this state was, for 
a time at least, straight against it. Mr. Hale put himself 
on record, by speech, resolution, and ballot, as opposed to 
the measure. He was not long in discovering that his posi- 
tion was not approved at home ; and, further on, he came 
to see that his continued opposition to the annexation 
would prove his political death-warrant. He was at this 
time the nominee of his party for re-election ; but he knew 
that his votes and action on this measure would result in 
his being finally repudiated by his political friends. Still, 
he wavered not. Rather, he went forward and forestalled 
his doom by writing a letter, addressed to his constituents, in 
which he declared that the reasons given by the advocates 
of the annexation scheme " were eminently worthy to pro- 
voke the scorn of earth and the judgment of Heaven." 
In the convention of his party, which immediately followed, 
Mr. Hale's name was struck from the ticket by a unanimous 
vote. Mr. Hale then began to make those appeals to the 
people, in which the powers of his peculiar and versatile elo- 
quence had full play. He spoke before crowded audiences 
in great halls, or to the few who gathered in school-houses, 
or in the open air, to listen to his impassioned vindications. 
The meeting in the Old North church, at Concord, will 
never be forgotten. Mr. Hale went there an object of bit- 
ter hatred to his old friends, not accepted by the other 
great party, — alone. In that speech in the church, in the 
presence of an excited, crowded audience, his voice attuned 
to the promptings of his deepest convictions, rang out those 
ever memorable words, — "" I expected to be called ambi- 
tious, to have my name cast out as evil, to be traduced and 
misrepresented. I have not been disappointed, but if 
things have come to this condition, that conscience and a 
sacred regard for truth and duty are to be publicl}'^ held up 
to ridicule and scouted at without rebuke, as has just been 
done here, it matters little whether we are annexed to 
Texas, or Texas is annexed to us. I may be permitted to 



190 THE HALE STATUE. 

say that the measure of my ambition will be full, if, when 
my earthly career shall be finished, and my bones are laid 
beneath the soil of New Hampshire, and my wife and chil- 
dren shall repair to my grave to drop the tear of affection 
to my memory, they may read on ray tombstone, ' He who 
lies beneath surrendered office and place and power, rather 
than bow down and worship slavery.' " I think that the 
bitterest political opponent who to-day survives Mr. Hale 
must admire his loft}^ intrepid spirit, as thus manifested; 
concede his perfect honesty, and confess that, now, as he 
sleeps beneath New Hampshire soil, after nearly thirty 
years of fearless and persistent opposition to a great wrong, 
he may fairly claim the proud epitaph which he once craved. 
********** 
James Otis and Patrick Henry were the evangels of our 
American liberty. Theirs were the voices which were 
heard ringing in the wilderness. They did a work as 
mighty as that of Washington and Adams, whose genius it 
was to organize the forces which these others had called 
into life ; to put them into serried columns on the field of 
battle, and construct them into the union of states and the 
constitution of a great nation. Mr. Hale was the Patrick 
Henry of our Revolutionary age. His clarion voice, wher- 
ever heard, — in the congressional hall, or from the plat- 
form, — electrified the people, and challenged them, for 
twenty long years, to a deeper and deeper indignation 
against the great wrong of the nation. His speeches in the 
senate chamber were meant for other ears than grave and 
reverend senators. They weie not carefully prepared ora- 
tions. They were not for the elucidation of some perplex- 
ing subject of finance. They were brief, witty, scathing 
replies, or magnificent bursts of feeling and righteous wrath, 
or jocose allusions and illustrations, under the fun and 
laughter of which the keen blade glittered, or solemn, 
prophetic warning and appeal, — all these, from first to last, 
• bearing upon the one great evil, and all addressed to that 
vast, to him ever visible, audience, which, in all the cities 



APPENDIX. 191 

and villages and in every hamlet of the North and West, 
were listening, — some in rage and some in fervid sym- 
pathy — but all listening with profonnd interest to the words 
which leaped from his lips. 

And how skilfully Heaven fitted its chosen instrument 
for this great, perilous work. It was wonderful. Other 
congressmen spoke in opposition to slavery, and then be- 
came silent through fear. Others only evoked an answer- 
ing wrath, which took from their arguments half theii- 
power. But here was one who stood, through the battle of 
twenty years, the most conspicuous knight of them all, 
striking with the heavy and lightning stroke of a Coeur de 
Lion, but with such good heartiness, such imperturbable 
temper, such rollicking fun, in the wild medley of the great 
fight, that his enemies fell back to pay homage to his mag- 
nanimity, his courage, his genuine feeling, his irresistible, 
large fellowship and good nature. 

I remember when, in 1858, I was acting as a reporter in 
a southern commercial convention in Savannah, where Yan- 
cey and Rhett and Barnwell and DeBow, and other fiery 
sons of the South, poured out in I'ed-hot invective and abuse 
their hatred of northern men, — I remember of hearing them 
speak of " Jack Hale," as they and you loved to call him, 
as a "prince of good fellows." In an after-sojourn of a 
year in the South, mingling with the great southern lead- 
ers, just on the eve of those great events which broke upon 
us, when men's minds were infuriated with hatred of the 
North, I do not recall that I ever heard from any of these 
men any word which indicated a bitter feeling against Mr. 
Hale. 

Now, such a man, one who could hold his place and yet 
all the time be true to it, faithful and yet courteous, speak- 
ing the severest truth with such an inimitable grace of soul 
that his foes must needs join in admiration of it, — such a 
man, my friends, is not born in centuries. It was our hap- 
piest fortune that Heaven sent him into our age and into 
the awful crisis of our affairs. One less courageous than he 



192 THE HALE STATUE. 

would have failed us. One less amiable and good-hearted 
would have been useless. 

********** 

With his private life, with the charms of his pei'sonal 
character, you are all familiar. His sw^eetest and most 
attractive trait was his love of nature. He loved the great 
hill-tops where he could see village and hamlet, plain and 
forest, and the horizon stretching away into its infinitude. 
He loved the ocean, and would sit for hours entranced by its 
ever-varying sights and sounds. He loved especially the 
hillside where he now lies, and from it he was wont many 
and many times to gaze in mute rapture upon the sun sink- 
ing into the western heavens. He loved his old ways and 
old places. He was full of the simplicities of nature, — child- 
like, sportive, notional, hearty, always natural. And for it 
all you loved him with a rare fondness and pride. No party 
prejudice kept your hearts from him. When he came back 
from his foreign mission, his old political opponents vied 
with his strong party friends to bid him warmest welcome. 
In his sickness and sad infirmities, your pities and prayers 
mingled. And when at last God had called him, and you 
went forth to bear him to his loved and longed-for resting- 
place, without thought of party differences, you, with tears 
and tenderness, laid him with his mother earth. 

He must have been a rare man to have thus won your 
liearts, — rare in the qualities of his social nature and the 
sweetness of his character, as well as in his splendid intel- 
lectual capacities, his keen, broad mind, his intuitive insight, 
his fervid imagination, and eloquent speech. Already we 
yearn to honor him with the full meed of his honor, but 
that cannot be. The smoke and dust of a tremendous con- 
flict still cover the field. We, and he who moved so grandly 
in it, are not to be seen in due clearness and proportion, but 
the day is coming when the mist shall have cleared away, 
and all will stand forth in the revealing light of history in 
their true place and stature. When that day comes, among 
the greatest who wrought with equal skill and force to lift 



APPENDIX. 193 

man into higher dignity and knit the race into closer broth- 
erhood, and who taught succeeding generations the solemn^ 
inspiring lesson of loyalty to God and right, will be seen, in 
all the loftiness of his full stature, him whom to-day we 
honor — John Parker Hale. 



NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS. 

[From The Journal, Augusta, Me., August 3, 1892.] 

To-morrow the statue of John P. Hale, which has been 
erected in the Capitol park, Concord, N. H., by the munifi- 
cence of his son-in-law, Hon. W. E. Chandler of the United 
States senate, will be publicly presented to the people of 
New Hampshire and dedicated with appropriate exercises. 
The honor to be thus paid to the memory of this incorrup- 
tible statesman is well deserved, for in the contest over 
slavery which ended with the freedom of the slave, he was a 
brave and fearless leader. As all readers of American his- 
tory know, the Free Soil movement, which led to the Re- 
bellion and the proclamation of emancipation of President 
Lincoln, began in the American congress over the passage of 
the resolutions providing for the annexation of Texas, with- 
out recourse to the treaty-making power, the vote on which 
was had in the house of representatives on the 25th of 
January, 1845. The Democratic party, which had just 
elected James K. Polk president, made the support of these 
resolutions the test ( f party fealty. Of the ninety-eight 
negative votes but twenty-eight were cast by those classed 
as Democrats, all of whom were from the free states. One 
of these twenty-eight was John P. Hale, of New Hamp- 
shire, then serving his first term in the house. 

He was in his thirty-ninth year, and had only recently 
been nominated by the Democrats of his district for re- 
election. For his disobedience to the orders of the slave 
power, the party leaders in New Hampshire determined to 
discipline him, but they never made a more fatal party 
13 



194 THE HALE STATUE. 

blunder. He was denounced as a traitor to liis party, a 
new convention was called and another candidate nomi- 
nated, the result of the election being that there was no 
choice, and for the next two years the district was unrepre- 
sented in congress. The next year, 1846, Hale was elected 
to the New Hampshire legislature by his Dover friends, was 
elected speaker, and then United States senator for the full 
term of six years, as an anti-slavery man, and in December, 
1847, he entered the United States senate, the first distinct- 
ively anti-slavery member of that body. He thus became 
the recognized leader of the Free Soilers throuo-hout the 
country. He would doubtless have been their standard- 
bearer in the presidential campaign of 1848, had not the 
party decided to take advantage of the Barnburner thirst 
for revenge on Lewis Cass, and so placed Van Buren at the 
head of its ticket, but in 1852 the Free Soilers turned to 
him as their natural leader. He was one of the bravest and 
most fearless champions of the cause of human rights, and 
his courage, ability, and thorough steadfastness in support 
of freedom and national unity were of the highest value, 
both before and during the Civil War. In the light of his- 
tory, John P. Hale, the anti-slavery Republican, stands far 
higher in the roll of New Hampshire statesmen than 
Franklin Pierce, the pro-slavery Democratic president. 



[From the Camden (Me.) Herald, August 12, 1892.] 

The unveiling last week of the beautiful statue of John 
P. Hale, presented to the city of Concord, N. H., by Hon. 
William E. Chandler, his son-in-law, was an occasion of 
interest, not only to New Hampshire but to the countr3% 
The eloquent eulogies delivered did but simple justice to 
one who bore so brave and manly a part in the great anti- 
slavery struggle from 1845 to 1865. John P. Hale was a 
magnificent man, physically, mentally, and morally. He 
was formerly a Democrat, and a friend and political asso- 



APPENDIX. 195 

ciate of Franklin Pierce, but on the slavery question they 
divided, Pierce taking the pro-slavery and Hale the anti- 
slavery side of the question. It was like the sundering of 
family ties, for they had been friends and associates since 
their college days at Old Bowdoin. 

The work which John P. Hale did as a senator from New 
Hampshire can hardly be adequately' appreciated. His 
bravei'y, combined with his eloquence and humorous style, 
made him a formidable adversary for the champions of 
slavery to meet. In many respects he was superior to 
Charles Sumner as a debater and controversialist. The 
work that he did will stand in history more enduring than 
the bronze statue erected to his blessed memory. 

Many of our older people well remember hearing John P. 
Hale speak here on the political issues of the country in the 
great Lincoln campaign of 1860. The meeting was one of 
the largest ever held in Camden, the people coming not 
only from all parts of tlie county, but from Bangor with 
"wide-awake" uniforms and banners. It was held in the 
Buchanan grove at the foot of Mount Battle on Mountain 
street. We shall never forget the stirring eloquence of the 
speech he made on that occasion. His humor was magnifi- 
cent. We remember distinctly one happy hit of the speech. 
There was a great complaint at that time against the minis- 
ters for preaching politics. Mr. Hale said this preaching 
against sin had always been unpopular with sinners. He 
remembered that Paul preached on one occasion at Ephe- 
sus, where many of the merchants and manufacturers were 
engaged in the making and selling of silver images of the 
Goddess Diana. One of these rich and influential gentle- 
men was walking up to the church with Paul where he was 
going to preach. He said to Paul that the people of Ephe- 
sus had heard a great deal about that eloquent sermon 
which he preached at Athens, and he thought they would 
like very much to hear him repeat that sermon ; but Paul, 
knowing the peculiar sins of Ephesus, pitched right into 
the silver image business, and Paul received no call to 



196 THE HALE STATUE. 

preach any more at Epliesiis I The humor of the ilhistra- 
tion was irresistible. 

We remember very distinctly the simplicity and delight- 
fulness of the man while he was a guest at our home. We 
invited to dine with him at our table two of the veteran 
Abolitionists who had voted for Hale as the Free Soil candi- 
date for president in 1852, George W. Cobb and Nathaniel 
Hosmer. The meeting of these men was one we shall 
never forget. We remember how they talked of the oblo- 
quy of carrying the banner of Free Soil in the dark days of 
persecution, and the prospect and outlook for the future. 

If ever man was worthy of a statue it was John P. Hale 
of New Hampshire. 



[From The Press, Tortland, Me., August 1, 1892.] 

John P. Hale was one of the earliest in the field of the 
group of great anti-slavery statesmen. When the war with 
Mexico opened the eyes of the North, both of the great 
parties contributed men who thenceforth became famous 
anti-slavery champions, Seward, Wade, Fessenden, Giddings, 
and Stevens came from the Whig party ; and John P. Hale, 
Hamlin, Wilmot, and Chase from the Democratic party. 
Hale's path as an anti-slavery leader in New Hampshire 
was not strewn with roses. Franklin Pierce tried twice to 
discipline him for opposing the annexation of Texas; but 
he beat Pierce twice before the people, defied the Demo- 
cratic party, and was elected to the United States senate as 
a Free Soiler. But Pierce triumphed in the election of '52, 
when he was elected president, receiving 1,601,274 votes to 
1,386,580 for Scott (Whig), and 155,825 for Hale, who ran 
as the Free Soil candidate. But Pierce's triumph was only 
for a time ; and in the light of history John P. Hale, the 
anti-slavery Republican, stands far higher in the roll of 
New Hampshire statesmen than Franklin Pierce, the pro- 
slavery Democratic president. 



APPENDIX. 197 

[From The Journal, Augusta, Me., August 5, 18f)'2.] 

The ceremonies at Concord, Wednesday, in connection 
with the dedication of a monument to the memory of John 
P. Hale, were a fitting and impressive tribute to one of the 
grandest figures in New England history, a man who could 
not be driven or cajoled fi'om his convictions of duty, and 
who took his stand for free soil, free speech, and free men 
at a time when the championship of those principles cost 
something. 



[From The Advertiser, Boston, ^lass., August 6, 1S1I2.] 

Senator Chandler of New Hampshire never did a better 
deed than when he pi'omoted the placing of a statue at the 
capital of his state, to that brave and effective champion of 
freedom, his predecessor in the senate — Jolm Parker Hale 
of Dover. Senator Hale deserved the honor more than 
Webster, whose statue was first set up there ; and not less 
than John Stark, the heio of Bunker Hill and of Benning- 
ton ; for he had the courage that Webster needed, and that 
Stark showed so often in battle. Obstinate courage is the 
ordinary virtue of New Hampshire, — so common that its 
presence is hai'dly noted ; but the absence of it excites 
remark and opprobrium at once. The warfare canied on 
by Hale against the arrogant slave masters of Carolina and 
Virginia was longer, and at first seemed more hopeless, 
than the fight of Stark, Weare, and Langdon against King 
George ; but the final result was similar. 

The " Granite State," as her sons like to call New Hamp- 
shii'e, was united against England, and furnished Washing- 
ton with his most efficient soldiers ; she also stood by 
Washington in peace as in war ; and when she saw Jack- 
son, with equal bravery, if with more passion, defending his 
country, she stood by him also. This had the ill effect to 
throw the state upon the wi'ong side in the early years of 
the anti-slavery conflict ; for Jackson, though he had put 



198 THE HALE STATUE. 

down the revolt of Calhoun in 1832, was a slaveholder, and 
an advocate for annexing Texas. Hale, like his college- 
mates, Hawthorne, F. Pierce, and J. Cilley, was a Jackson 
Democrat, — had even been appointed to office, when a 
young lawyer, by President Jackson ; but when the scheme 
of annexing Texas, merely to aid slavery against freedom, 
was pressed upon him, he refused to follow the party flag 
any longer. 

I well remember the excitement aroused by his bold 
course. Pierce, afterwards president, was then the Demo- 
cratic leader in the state — a handsome, genial, plausible 
gentleman, son of a Revolutionary officer, and without any 
great personal ambition. Hale, also, was a popular lawyer, 
humorous and plain in manners, but of an earnestness till 
then unsuspected. His own section — the counties of Rock- 
ingham and Strafford, which had been almost the whole 
state in the Revolution — stood by Hale, and the Demo- 
cratic strength was broken there, never to return in full 
vigor. The little town of Hampton Falls, from which 
Whittier dates his admiiable letter in praise of Hale, threw 
more Democratic votes for Hale, as an independent candi- 
date for congress, than for Pierce's man, John Woodbury. 
Two years later, Hale took his seat in the senate, the first 
avowed anti-slavery senator for twenty-five years. He was 
chosen in 1846. 

Callionn of Cai'olina was then a senator, as he had been 
for more than twenty years, — so were Benton of Missouri, 
Clay of Kentucky, and Webster of Massachusetts. Hale 
was a new man, though he had served a term in the house, 
but he was not long in coming to the front. In March, 
1848, he introduced a bill in the senate applying Jefferson's 
ordinance forbidding slavery in Oregon, which was soon to 
come in as a state. In his remarks supporting it, he said: 
"I am willing to place myself upon the great principle of 
human right, to stand where the word of God and my own 
conscience concur in placing me, and then bid defiance to^ 



APPENDIX. 199 

all consequences." Calhoun maintained that congress had 
no power to prevent a slaveholder from emigrating to any 
territory, and th^re holding his slaves, and that even the 
people of the territory had no riglit to say no. 

A few days later Calhoun declared the same opinion, 
adding : " If the historian who shall record the destruction 
of our Union should be disposed to look to its remote and 
recondite causes, he will trace them to a proposition which 
is the most false and most dangerous of all political errors, — 
that all men are born free and equal. As understood, there 
is not a word of truth in it." In the following month 
(April, 1848), Hale having introduced a resolution based on 
a law of Maryland making the District of Columbia respon- 
sible for property destroyed by a pro-slavery mob, Calhoun 
said, " I am amazed that even the senator from Xew Hamp- 
shire should have so little regard for the constitution of the 
country as to introduce such a bill as this." It was such 
utterances as this, no doubt, that led Lowell, in the ''Big- 
low Papers," to make Callioun say : 

"We Stan' on the Constitushun, by thunder! 

It' s a fac' uv Avich there 's bushels uv proofs : 
Fer haow c'd we trample on 't so, I wonder, 

Ef 't warnt thet 't is oilers under aour hoofs? 

In the same debate, Senator Foote of Mississippi distin- 
guished himself, even among slave-masters, by charging that 
Hale was " as guilty as if he had committed highway rob- 
bei*y ; " adding, ''I invite him to visit Mississippi, and will 
tell him beforehand that he could not go ten miles into the 
interior, befoie he would grace one of the tallest trees of 
the forest, with a rope round his neck ; and that, if neces- 
sary, I should myself assist in the operation." Such were 
the fair humanities of old slave-masters. Little did Hale 
care for such threats. 

Hale was twice nominated for the presidency — in 1848, 
when he declined in favor of Van Buren, and in 1852, 



200 THE HALE STATUE. 

when another New Hampshire man was elected, — Franklin 
Pierce, who had vainly tried to put Hale down, in 1845, on 
the Texas issue. This time Pierce had the people with 
him, and was triumphantly chosen over his old commander, 
Scott, as well as over Hale. It was a barren triumph. 

Hale was then recalled to the senate, .... and 
from 1855 onward, New Hampshire led the opposition to 
slavery, as she had formerly led the Jackson Democracy. 
To Hale and his following this change was chiefly due, and 
it came in spite of the fact that Webster, Cass, Pierce, and 
the other eminent " Sons of New Hampshire " were all on 
the other side. The stone which the builders rejected 
became the head of the corner, as so often happens ; and 
Hale was that stone. Now he stands in permanence at the 
corner of the state house yard — a sign to all the world that 
men love a brave man. 

F. B. Sanborn. 

Concord, August 5. 



[From The Spij, Worcester, Mass., August 3, 1892.] 

To-day the citizens of New Hampshire are doing a credit- 
able thing in honoring the memory of their most distin- 
guished and patriotic statesman of the last generation, by 
the dedication of a monument at the state capital in Con- 
cord to John P. Hale The political revolution 

accomplished by Mr. Hale, and those who stood by him in 
his refusal to bow down to the Baal of slavery at the bid- 
ding of Franklin Pierce, Isaac Hill, and others forty-six 
years ago, is the most memorable in the history of that 
state or of any other state. It was a first great step toward 
the accomplishment of the subsequent grand national polit- 
ical revolution, by which Abraham Lincoln was elected and 
slavery abolished in the country. Hale's triumph over 
Pierce in 18I:G was but the forerunner of the triumph of 
Lincoln over Douglas and Breckenridge in 1860, and of 
freedom over slavery as a necessary result. The platform 



APPENDIX. 201 

•on which Mr. Hale was nominated for president in 1852 
had for one of its planks the resolution that "slavery is a 
sin against God and a crime against man, and we will use 
our utmost efforts to abolish it ; " and another, that " we 
go for free soil, free speech, and free men, and will fight 
ever for these principles until victory shall reward our 
efforts." These views were more radical than those put 
into the platforms of 1856 and 1860, but the nation had to 
come up to them before the war was over. In honoring 
John P. Hale his state honors the platform of principles on 
which he stood, to which, thank God, the nation has at last 
come. 



[From the Haverhill (Mass.) Bulletin, August 2, 189'J ] 

Many men have been born and reared in New Hamp- 
shire, men who have helped shape the destiny of the nation. 
Among these, few, if any, occupied a grander or more influ- 
ential position than the late John Parker Hale. He was 
born in 1810, and grew up a Democrat after the strictest 
measure of the party of his state. 

In 1831, while residing in Dover, he was appointed 
United States district attorney by President Jackson, which 
office he held until removed by President Tyler in 1841. 
In 1843 he was elected member of congress, and in 1844 
Polk was elected president, and President Tyler was mov- 
ing every available force to annex Texas, and to the sur- 
prise of many, Mr. Hale opposed the scheme. Two years 
later he was defeated, and a man friendly to annexation was 
elected. Then followed the great contest in New Hamp- 
shire which made Hale immortal ; he was from that time 
onward the recognized political anti-slavery leader in the 
Old Granite state. He went before the people of the state 
in the 1845-46 campaign, and won. He was elected a 
member of the legislature, speaker of the house, and United 
States senator for six years from March 4, 1847. 

The campaign of 1845 and 1846 completely revolution- 



202 THE HALE STATUE. 

ized New Hampshire. Hale's brave words for freedom 
awoke the echoes among the hills and through the valleys 
of the old commonwealth, arousing the hardy yeomaniy 
everywhere to a sense of their duty to humanity. Men 
who had been life-long Democrats threw oif the yoke of 
bondage and rallied under the new standard raised by the 
"Renegade Jack Hale," as he was called in derision by the 
old "hunkers," of the Democratic party. On one of these 
occasions, soon after this memorable campaign began, Mr. 
Hale, by invitation, made an address in the North church 
at Concord. It proved the event of his life. He entered 
the church a stranger to almost everybody present in the 
vast audience. He was there to vindicate his action in 
leaving his old associates and organizing a new party. He 
was, as he afterwards said himself, gloomy and desponding. 
But the inspii-ation came and he held the listeners in 
breathless silence to the end. That inspiration, said Mr. 
Hale, lasted him during the entiie campaign and never left 
him, and subsided only when the proclamation of President 
Lincoln declared that in this land the sun should rise upon 
no bondsman and set upon no slaves. And this enabled 
him to say afterwards, " Now when I turn my eyes heaven- 
ward, I can, in imagination, see hanging out from the bat- 
tlements of Heaven the broken shackles of four millions of 
slaves, which for twenty years I did all in my power to 
rend." 

John P. Hale was a great man, .and his life left an 
impress upon New Hampshire which will never fade out. 
When he left the Democratic party of his native state, that 
party was bound hand and foot to the slave power of the 
South, and the grand old state seemed to be doomed to wear 
the shackles and chain forever. But his voice broke the 
spell, and such men as the late William Hoyt of Danville 
and others heard and spurned longer to remain in the ranks 
of a party pledged to sustain slavery ; they joined the new 
movement, and New Hampshire soon took its stand on the 
side of freedom and humanitv. 



APPENDIX. 203 

And now, while John P. Hale needs no monnment to 
perpetuate his memory or his worth, it is well to give this 
splendid statue, now ready, a place in the State House park 
at the capital of the state. The unveiling of this fine work 
of art is to take place on Wednesday with imposing and 
appropriate ceremonies. 

"Once to every man and nation 
Comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of truth with falsehood, 
For the good or evil side." 

That time came to John P. Hale when he refused to do 
the bidding of the slave power. Noble was the stand he 
took ; grandly did he sustain himself, and win the name he 
sent down to posterity. 



[From the Boston Traveller, July 29, 1892.] 

The dedication of the statue of John P. Hale, which will 
take place at Concord, N. H., next week, will be an occasion 
of unusual interest. The honor which is paid his memory 
is well deserved. In the contest over slavery, which ended 
with the freedom of the slave, he was a brave and fearless 
leader. The Free Soil movement in the national congress, 
began, as it will be remembered, over the passage of the 
resolutions providing for the annexation of Texas without 
recourse to the treaty-making power, the vote on which was 
had in the house of representatives on the 25th of January, 
1845. The Democratic party, which had just elected James 
K. Polk president, made the support of these resolutions 
the test of party fealty. Of the ninety-eight negative votes 
but twenty-eight were cast by those classed as Democrats, 
all of whom were from the free states. One of these 
twenty-eight was John P. Hale of New Hampshire, then 
serving his first term in the house. 

He was in his thirty-ninth year, and had only recently 
been nominated by the Democrats of his district for re-elec- 



204 THE HALE STATUE. 

tion. For his disobedience to the orders of the slave power, 
the party leaders in New Hampshire determined to disci- 
pline him, but they never made a more fatal party blunder. 
He was denounced as a traitor to his party, a new convention 
was called, and another candidate nominated, the result of 
the election being that there was no choice, and for the 
next two years the district was unrepresented in congress. 
The next year, 1846, Hale was elected to the New Hamp- 
shire legislature by his Dover friends, was elected speaker, 
and then United States senator for the full term of six 
years, as an anti-slavery man, and in December, 1847, he 
entered the United States senate, the first distinctively anti- 
slavery member of that body. He thus became the recog- 
nized leader of the Free Soilers throughout the country. 
He would doubtless have been their standard-bearer in the 
presidential campaign of 1848, had not the party decided to 
take advantage of the Barnburner thirst for i-evenge on 
Lewis Cass, and so placed Van Buren at the head of its 
ticket, but in 1852 the Free Soilers turned to him as their 
natural leader. He was one of the bravest and most fear- 
less champions of the cause of human rights, and his cour- 
age, ability, and thorough steadfastness in support of free- 
dom and national unity were of the highest value, both 
before and daring the Civil War. 

The statue is the gift to the state of Senator William E. 

Chandler, who will formally present it The 

statue is a fitting tribute to the memory of a devoted and 
patriotic son of the Granite state, and it is fitting that it 
should have a place in Capitol park, by the side of that 
other great son of that state, Daniel Webster. 



[From The Journal, Boston, Mass., August 4, 1892.] 

The ceremonies at Concord yesterda}^ in connection with 
the dedication of a monument to the memory of John P. 
Hale, were a fitting and impressive tribute to one of the 
grandest figui-es in New England history, a man who could 



APPENDIX. 205 

not be driven or cajoled from his convictions of duty, and 
who took his stand for free soil, free speech, and free men 
at a time when the championship of those principles cost 
somethino;. 



[From the Boston Herald, August 4, 1892.] 

The statue unveiled at Concord yesterday renders a tardy 
tribute to the memory of one of the great men of New 
Hampshire, its first abolition senator, one of the first men 
in congress to labor for the freedom of the slave, and a man 
wdiom the state rightly honors for his personal and political 
worth. Senator Chandler deserves the thanks of New Eng;- 
land people for erecting this statue to the memory of his 
distinguished kinsman, and his speech on the occasion was 
a fair and just summary of the place which Senator Hale 
held in the history of the struggle over slavery and in sus- 
taining the efforts of his countr3'men to secure its abolition 
during the Civil War. Governor Tuttle and Colonel Hall 
were equally happy in their efforts, and the dedication of 
this statue will long be remembered as a notable event in 
the political history of New Hampshire. 



[From the Boston Herald, August 5, 1892.] 

The early services of John P. Hale in the cause of free- 
dom are not likely to be overestimated. He fitted in admi- 
rably with Seward, Sumner, and Wade, and supplied an 
element of humor, in which they were all deficient, to the 
anti-slavery debates of the senate. His portly personality 
admirably accorded with his general good nature, and he 
could say very sharp things without appearing malicious or 
bitter in so doing. He so exasperated that queer charactei', 
Senator Foote of Mississippi, one day, that the latter told 
him they would hang him to the nearest tree if he came 
into the southern state. Hale turned this upon him with 
imperturbable phlegm, neither posing as a possible martyr 



206 THE HALE STATUE. 

nor showing an}^ special resentment toward his adversary, 
but treating him with the ridicule he deserved. 



[From the Boston News, July 29, 1892.] 

One of New Hampshire's ablest, and certainly one of her 
bravest, statesmen was John P. Hale. He was in public 
life when it required courage to openl}^ denounce the insti- 
tution of slavery, and never shirked nor faltered in his 
devotion to the cause he early espoused. Both before and 
during the Civil War, both at home and abroad, he per- 
formed valuable service for the nation, and it is fitting that 
his memory should be honored. On Wednesday next a 
statue will be dedicated at Concord, presented by Senator 
William E. Chandler, and being accepted by the state will 
stand through the years to come to call attention, not only 
to John P. Hale, but to the respect in which he is held by 
those who follow him. 



[From the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, August 6, 1892.] 

John P. Hale's statue should have been standing in the 
New Hampshire capital these twenty years past ; but much 
better late than never. He was the first of the anti-slavery 
senators, and he had a pretty lonesome time of it, politi- 
cally, until Chase and Sumner arrived on the scene. 

When the committees of the senate were made up at the 
opening of the session, he was left out in the cold alto- 
gether. The explanation given on the floor by one of the 
little great men of the day was, that Hale was " outside all 
healthy political organizations." A man of a different 
temperament in his place would have lost his head and 
raged, or lost his pluck and moped. Hale laughed and 
waited. He was as cool, as bright, and as irrepressible as a 
May morning. After a little the senate discovered that the 
" Abolitionist" from New Hampshire was a thoroughl}^ good 
fellow, and that he had the invaluable faculty of being able 



APPENDIX. 207 

to make it laugh. He could be serious enough on occasion, 
but it was as natural to him to joke as to breathe. What 
with his geniality and his irresistible drollery, the slave- 
holders of the senate presently found themselves distin- 
guishing between the man and his opinions, and liking the 
one as cordially as they detested the other. In this respect 
his case presents a marked contrast to that of Seward. The 
Southerners not only hated Seward's politics, but they hated 
Seward himself. He lacked Hale's bonhomie and charm ; 
he was always serious. 

But the New Hampshire man's jokes and stories didn't 
make him any the less faithful and useful soldier of the 
good cause of human freedom to which he and his great 
comrade from New York devoted so many years of arduous 
service and whose triumph the}^ lived to see. Each had his 
own place and work, and both deserve to be held in grati- 
tude and honor. 



[From the New York Times, August 4, 1892.] 

It is fitting that the statue of John P. Hale, just erected 
by Senator Chandler, should have a place in the state house 
yard at Concord, the capital of the state which he repre- 
sented at Washington, first as a congressman, and then as a 
senator. In no other New Hampshire man's life, not 
excepting even Daniel Webster's, may the people of the 
Granite state find solider ground for state pride. Mr. Hale 
was one of the great men of his time, and that is saying 
much, for his public career covered the period in which was 
fought out the contest which culminated in the War of the 
Rebellion. There doubtless were profounder men than Mr. 
Hale in that period — although he had a strong and well- 
disciplined mind — but there was no man of all his contem- 
poraries who over-matched him in courage and resoluteness. 
It was by the consecration of his powers to the anti-slavery 
cause, and by his unswerving adherence to what he con- 
ceived to be the line of his duty, that he made himself a 
man of the nation before he reached his fortieth vear. 



208 THE HALE STATUE. 

The crisis of his life came when as a congressman he 
faced the question of the annexation of Texas. The posi- 
tion that he took upon this matter was regarded with dis- 
favor by liis constituents, and he heard from them. Reply- 
ing to their protests, he wrote that if the}^ did not approve 
of his course they would better nominate another man to 
be his successor. That very thing the}^ did. They had 
already made Mr. Hale a candidate for reelection, but they 
held a second convention, in which they repudiated him, 
denouncing him as a traitor to his party. Not a word of 
regret came from Mr. Hale for the course which had pre- 
cipitated this action, but when congress adjourned he went 
home and announced himself as an independent candidate. 
He failed of election, but so did the regularly nominated 
candidate of his party, and Mr. Hale was well satisfied, see- 
ing that he had defeated the Democratic party in a fair con- 
test in which he had squarely met the issue. This outcome 
of the campaign was far more than he had hoped for at 
first. In the beginning he had regarded himself more as a 
propagandist than as a candidate. 

It was very early in this campaign that he had that 
memorable meeting with Franklin Pierce in the Old North 
church at Concord. Mr. Hale had been invited by a few 
of his friends to make a speech in vindication of his course 
in congress. He found the church packed with an audience 
that was far from friendly to him. His address took the 
form of an out-and-out anti-slavery argument. Not a word 
of apology w^as in it ; not the sign of an acknowledgment 
of error ; not one concessionary sentence. Mr. Pierce fol- 
lowed with a review of Mr. Hale's address — a review full of 
spirited denunciation, at times almost cruel in its severity. 
At the close came a taunt in which Mr. Hale was reminded 
of his prompt repudiation by his constituents, and was 
warned that persistence in his course would result in his 
permanent retirement from public life. Mr. Hale could 
hardly contain himself as these last words were speaking. 
As Mr. Pierce finished, he leaped upon the seat of the pew 



APPENDIX. 209 

where he had been sitting, faced the great audience, and 
burst into speech. He spoke for about five minutes, and 
one who heard him has lately said that in that five minutes 
he was moved by the "most marvellous eloquence that ever 
fell from human lips." In closing, Mr. Hale said : 

" When filial affection shall erect a humble monument to show 
where rest my mortal remains, I wish upon it no other epitaph than 
this : ' Here lies one who surrendered office, place, and power rather 
than bow down and worship slavery.' " 

The next year Mr. Hale was chosen a member of the 
legislature, and was made speaker of the house. The same 
year he was elected United States senator by a combination 
of men of different parties. He was but forty-one years 
old when he entered the United States senate, the only one 
of his kind, the sole representative in that body of the anti- 
slavery sentiment of the country. Referring to Mr. Hale's 
election as speaker of the New Hampshire house of repre- 
sentatives, and anticipating his election as United States 
senator, the poet Whittier wrote a letter in 1846, in which 
he said : 

" He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has 
hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embrace of slavery. The 
tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dikes of 
party, has at last broken over all barriers and is working down from 
your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed South, as if Niagara 
stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and 
Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood as it dashes 
against the walls of the Capitol bear thither for the first time an anti- 
slavery senator." 

No doubt this language seemed extravagant to those who 
read it when it was newly written, but certainly it was 
prophetic. The young man who had made so bold and gal- 
lant a fight in his own state was destined for a great and 
influential career in the senate of the United States. The 
story of his work at Washington is an important part of 
the history of the country. Fearing nobody, always ready 
14 



210 THE HALE STATUE. 

to meet an emergency, invariably earnest, intrepid, and 
aggressive, lie justified the expectations which his election 
as a senator had aroused. Excepting two years, he was a 
member of the senate up to 1865, so that it was permitted 
him to see the work completed in the inauguration of which 
he had participated. He was fortunate enough, too, to live 
to know that he, who at one time had been despised and 
hated by thousands of persons all over the country, had at 
last won the respect and admiration of the great American 
people by his manly independence and his magnificent 
courage. 

The lesson of Mr. Hale's life is easily read. His career 
is a striking instance of the high regard which the common 
people have for men who are fearless in the exercise of the 
functions of public office. The average American citizen 
has no place in his heart for the coward, but he esteems 
nothing too good to give the man who is willing to sacrifice 
himself rather than forego a principle. 



[From the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle, August 4, 1892.] 

A bronze statue of John P. Hale, presented to the state 
of New Hampshii'e by his son-in-law. Senator William E. 
Chandlei-, was yesterday unveiled at Concord. Hale was a 
Democrat when the state produced, as it does now, some of 
the stoutest Democrats anywhere to be found. At the 
time of the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, 
he left his party and was afterward classed as an Abolition- 
ist, though he was more practical than the Extremists, who 
insisted on immediate emancipation or non-communion with 
the Union. The Abolitionists builded a good deal better 
than they knew, although somewhat differently, as is apt to 
happen with the best of men. Their agitation kept alive 
the anti-slavery sentiment until its realization fell into the 
hands of those who applied to it the political forces which 
the Abolitionists rejected, and the institution was finally 
destroyed, incidentally to the defense and salvation of the 



APPENDIX. 211 

Union which they denounced. Hale was an able, accom- 
plished, eloquent man, who was appreciated and liked by 
many who differed most widely with him in opinion. As 
some of the bitterest of the Abolitionists, contrary to their 
expectations, lived to see freedom universal, so now, in the 
better days of a restored brotherhood of free states, the 
Southerner from the remotest boundary of the Gulf, travel- 
ing among the White hills of New Hampshire, will rejoice, 
as he looks at the figure of John P. Hale, that there is not 
a slave in the leng-th and breadth of the land. 



[From the Utica (N. Y.) Herald, August 5, 1892.] 

The statue of John P. Hale, presented to New Hamp- 
shire by Senator William E. Chandler, was unveiled in the 
state house yard at Concord, Wednesday, with appropriate 
ceremonies and in the presence of a distinguished company. 
It is a fitting tribute to the memory of the first distinctly 
anti-slavery advocate who ever entered the United States 
senate. He took his seat in December, 1847, and stood 
alone as the champion of a great cause until joined by 
Salmon P. Chase, two years later, and by Charles Sumner 
in December, 1851. 



[From the New York Tribune, August 4, 1892.] 

Not only the state of New Hampshire but the whole 
country is under obligation to Senator William E. Chand- 
ler for the gift of the statue of John P. Hale, which was 
unveiled at Concord yesterday. There are no more elo- 
quent voices in behalf of patriotism and good government 
than the echoes of those which, when the great cause of 
human rights was on trial, rang out clearly and fearlessly 
on the side of humanity and justice, and refused to be 
silenced by political proscription. They speak to us like 
the deeds of those who died at Gettysburg, as the heroes of 
Marathon spoke to imperial Athens. 



212 THE HALE STATUE. 

[From the New York Press, August 5, 1892.] 

The speech of Senator William E. Chandler, on the occa- 
sion of the unveiling of the statue of John P. Hale at Con- 
cord, was a strong and patriotic address, worthy of the fear- 
less champion of human rights whom it commemorated. 
The New Hampshire senator uttered a great truth in a 
striking form when he said : " Men who breathe their spirit 
into the institutions of their country, or stamp their char- 
acters upon the pillars of the age, can never die." A grate- 
ful people may rear visible memorials to men of this type ; 
but their truest memorial is the Republic they helped to 
make, not merely great in a material sense, but grand in a 
moral sense. John P. Hale was one of the most courag- 
eous of the little band that boldly defied the insolent slave 
power in congress ; the effect of the example of those eman- 
cipators and regenerators was potent and permanent. The 
good they did is immortal. 



[From the Syracuse (N. Y.) Journal, August 6, 1892.] 

The monument erected this week to the memory of John 
P. Hale, in the state house yard at Concord, was the gift of 
his son-in-law. Senator William E. Chandler, to the state of 
New Hampshire. The tribute conveyed in this memorial 
is most richly deserved. Mr. Hale was a pioneer Abolition- 
ist, and the first distinctively anti-slavery man to be chosen 
to the United States senate, where he led in the warfare 
against human slavery. He entered the senate in Decem- 
ber, 1847, and stood alone in that body in defense of man- 
hood and liberty, till Salmon P. Chase joined him in 
December, 1849, and Charles Sumner in December, 1851. 
* * * He stands unchallenged as New Hampshire's 
greatest orator, next to Daniel Webster, and his service in 
the anti-slavery cause was of the highest value. 



APPENDIX. 213 

[From the Philadelphia (Pa.) Press, August 4, 1892.] 

The unveiling of a statue in Concord, N. H., yesterday, of 
John Parker Hale, will serve to recall to the memory of the 
American public a man who acted a prominent part in the 
great slavery conflict which waged so fiercely between 1840 
and 1860. It is less than nineteen years ago since Mr. 
Hale died ; but so rapidly is history made in these days that 
the majority of men in active life now will be compelled to 
ask why he deserves the honor of a statue erected to his 
memory in the capitol yard of his native state. Even this 
distinction miffht have been denied him had not the admira- 
tion of Senator Chandler led him to perform this duty to a 
man who reflected such honor upon New Hampshire. 

The present generation can scarcely realize the heat and 
bitterness of the conflict with slavery, or the kind of men 
needed to withstand its encroachments. Southern states- 
men well understood the spirit of the North in those days, 
and its eagerness to develop the resources of this section 
and take advantage of the marvellous opportunities for 
growing rich. The South ruled the country with an iron 
hand. Its threats of dissolving the Union were generally 
effective in forcing congressmen from the North to do its 
will; for few constituencies were brave and far-sighted 
enough to support an intrepid senator or representative who 
ventured to cross swords with a Southern fire-eater. His- 
tory proves that the title of " doughface " was well earned 
by too many Northern congressmen. 

But John Parker Hale was one of the few exceptions. 
He shrank neither before the crack of the slave-owner's 
whip nor the anger of his constituents. He dared to oppose 
the annexation of Texas, because he believed it was sought 
in order to strengthen and perpetuate slavery ; and he had 
the principle to tell his people that they must choose 
another man to represent them if they wished him to sup- 
port that measure. It was a small thing to him that his 
district withdrew his renomination to congress, and that he 



214 THE HALE STATUE. 

was defeated as an independent candidate on that issue. 
Like a sagacious statesman, he could look beyond the next 
election and leave his vindication to the future. It came in 
a few years, when the change which was gradually spread- 
ing over the North on the subject of slavery resulted in his 
election to the United States senate, where, with a brief 
interval, he remained until 1865, when the conflict was 
ended, freedom had triumphed, and the slave was a free 
man. 

The rugged features of j\Ir. Hale's political principles 
made him a marked character in the forum of debate. No 
man who sat in congress from the North was more feared 
by the defenders of slavery. He could not be cajoled or 
intimidated. Fear for his own interests never influenced 
him. He believed slavery to be a wrong ; and he stood, like 
one of the granite hills of his native state, immovable 
before the assaults of its friends in the North as well as in 
the South. The specious arguments of those who upheld 
the " peculiar institution " will grow moldy and musty with 
dust ; but the declaration of John P. Hale for " free speech, 
free men, and free soil " will never cease to re-echo through 
the corridors of time. 

It is well to recall such a life as Mr. Hale's, and by pay- 
ing distinguished honor to his memory prove to young men 
that devotion to principle is certain to receive its just recog- 
nition. The men who defended human bondage have few 
to do them honor now, and the record of most of them is 
forgotten. But the memory of John P. Hale will grow 
brighter the further the nation recedes from the events in 
which he acted so conspicuous a part. The dedication of a 
statue in his honor comes at an appropriate time, for in the 
same week it occurs 100,000 ex-slaves and their descendants 
are permitted to prove their manhood by exercising the 
inestimable privilege of the suffrage in Alabama. 



APPENDIX. 215 

[From the Portland Oregonian.'\ , 

John Parker Hale Chandler, a boy of seven, unveiled a 
statue of his grandfather, John P. Hale, on the public 
square of Concord, New Hampshire, last Wednesday, 
presented to the city by his father. Senator Chandler. 
John P, Hale should not have waited so long for a memo- 
rial, nor should his city and state have waited for filial solic- 
itude to provide it. He was the worthiest son of his state 
and his name is associated in a peculiar way with a vital 
crisis in national history. 

John P. Hale was something more than the first Aboli- 
tionist in the United States senate, where he fought the 
battle for freedom for two years before he was joined by 
Chase and for four years before Sumner came. He was the 
first Abolitionist in public life after John Quincy Adams; the 
first of a long line of conscientious Democrats, from 1844 
to 1861, to sacrifice public office and break party ties for 
the sake of the cause of human freedom. He did not 
enter the senate till 1847. Three years before, he fought 
the gag law for anti-slavery petitions in the house of rep- 
resentatives, as Adams had fought it for eight years in the 
senate. Adams died in 1846, and for the last two years he 
had a constant and courageous ally in the representative 
from New Hampshire, in the contest whose brunt he had so 
long borne alone. Indeed, circumstances made Hale's 
opposition more dramatic and effective than Adams's. The 
event which finally determined his break with the Demo- 
cratic party attracted popular attention more sharply and 
gave the cause of abolition more conspicuous and solid 
standing than all the brave and patient work of the Massa- 
chusetts representative. 

This event occurred in 1845. The New Hampshire leg- 
islature had instructed i-epresentatives of the state in con- 
gress to support the annexation of Texas. Hale was then 
in cong-ress and a candidate for reelection. His instant 
response to the resolution was a letter refusing to obey the 



216 THE HALE STATUE, 

instructions and condemning annexation. At a state Dem- 
ocratic convention, six weeks later, his name was stricken 
from the ticket and another substituted. He was made an 
Independent candidate, and the election that spring was the 
opening skirmish in the long contest over the slavery ques- 
tion. There was failure to elect, and the contest was 
renewed, at special elections, four times between March, 
1845, and March, 1846. During all this year Hale can- 
vassed the state vigorously, with Franklin Pierce for his 
chief opponent, taking what was then very advanced ground 
on the slavery question. It was in a joint debate with 
Pierce in this canvass that he made the memorable retort to 
the taunt that his constituents had repudiated him : " When 
filial affection shall erect an humble monument to show where 
rest my mortal remains, I wish upon it no other epitaph than 
this: 'Here lies one who surrendered office, place, and 
power rather than bow down and worship slavery.' " It is 
not stated whether Senator Chandler placed this insciption 
upon the pedestal of the statue he presented to the city of 
Concord. It is permanently preserved in the history of the 
country. It was really this contest that made Hale sena- 
tor. The three-cornered contest of Whigs, Independents, 
and Democrats prevented the election of a Democratic gov- 
ernor in March, 1846. The Whigs and Independents had a 
majority in the legislature and fused, making Hale speaker 
and electing a Whig governor. A little later the same 
legislature elected Hale senator. He remained in the senate, 
with an intermission of two years, from 1853 to 1855, till 
1865, and lived until 1873, his active public life covering 
the whole anti-slavery conflict, from its weak beginnings to 
its triumphant conclusion. 

For nearly ten years from the death of Adams, Hale was 
regarded as the leader of the anti-slavery party in the 
country. It nominated him for president in 1847, though 
he refused and supported Van Buren, the Barnburner candi- 
date of the following year. He was a Free Soil candidate in 
1852 and got nearly 160,000 votes. He went to the senate 



APPENDIX. 217 

once more as a Free Soiler, but the Republican party was 
born and Fremont carried the state in 1856. Hale's last 
election in 1858 was as a Republican, and he was one of the 
pillars of the party in congress all through the war. 

Hale's title to eminence in the anti-slavery conflict was 
that of a pioneer. Less cultured than Sumner, less power- 
ful than Chase, he was a clear thinker, a hard fighter, and 
a most courageous follower of his moral convictions. He 
did his work when work was most needed, and when one 
man counted for more than a hundred later. None of the 
greater men who served the cause of freedom afterward 
merits tenderer and more honorable remembrance than this 
man, who fought its battles alone in a hostile senate as 
John Quincy Adams fought them in a hostile house of rep- 
resentatives. They were the two pioneers of freedom. 



[From The Post Intelligencer, Seattle, Wash., August 13, 1892.] 

On the 3d inst. a fine statue of John P. Hale, presented 
to the state of New Hampshire by United States Senator 
Chandler, was unveiled at Concord. The growing genera- 
tion need to be told the story of John P. Hale's career, for 
it is worth the telling in these sordid days when statesman- 
ship too often stands for political sycophancy and petty 
selfishness. John P. Hale early in life achieved brilliant 
success as a lawyer ; he was a handsome man, possessed of 
great natural gifts of wit and humor ; he was genial and 
popular, and was the favorite orator of the Democratic 
party of his day ; he was the associate and friend of Frank- 
lin Pierce, who became president in 1852. Mr. Hale was 
elected representative to congress, and was the idol of his 
party in New Hampshire until he was called upon in 1815 
to support the forcible annexation of Texas and an unjust 
war with Mexico, in order to extend the dominion of human 
chattel slavery and to bring more slave states into the 
Union. Then Mr. Hale rebelled, and wrote his famous 
Texas letter, for which he was expelled fi-om his party. 



218 THE HALE STATLTE. 

Mr. Hale bluntly told his constituents that they must 
choose another man to represent them if they wished him 
to support the annexation of Texas. His district took him 
at his word and withdrew his nomination to congress, and 
he was defeated as an independent candidate on that issue. 

The vast moral courage of Mr. Hale's act can hardly be 
appreciated at this distance of neai-ly a half a century from 
its date. The Whig party of the North at that day con- 
tained some able men vigorously opposed to the annexation 
of Texas, but there were very few in the Democratic party, 
for Martin Van Buren had just been beaten for the Demo- 
cratic nomination in the national convention of 1844, solely 
on the ground that he had once expressed himself in \evy 
moderate language as opposed to the annexation of Texas, 
and Henry Clay, who had expressed a similar opinion, had 
just been defeated for election for the presidency, in the 
splendid maturity of his fame and popularity, by obscure 
James K. Polk. The presidential election had turned on 
the question of the annexation of Texas, and the Demo- 
cratic victory over Clay had been won on this issue. 

When Mr. Hale rebelled against this test of party fealty 
he knew he was parting with a splendid popularity ; he 
knew that by this act he became a political outcast ; there 
was no home for him within either of the great parties, for 
the defeat of 1844 had silenced nearly all its great anti- 
slavery voices. After 1844 Webster's voice lost all its old 
anti-slavery ring, so that by 1850 we find him bidding for 
the presidency by helping Henry Clay carry the compro- 
mise measures, including the fugitive slave law of that year. 
In 1845, when Hale revolted, there was no home for him in 
either of the great political camps, and he knew it; he 
knew that this act would lose him the friendship of Pierce 
and all the party leaders in New Hampshire, and yet he 
did not hesitate ; he turned his back on fame and friend- 
ships ; he accepted obloquy and insult and courageously 
bided his time. It was not much for a fanatic to do, but 
Hale was not of the fanatic breed ; his training as a lawyer, 



APPENDIX. 219 

his early convivial habits, his genial temper and social tal- 
ents, his political training as a Democratic politician, had 
made him anything but a man of sombre, fanatical type. 
His act was due to the natural benevolence and kindness of 
his nature ; he abhorred slavery, and he would not load his 
conscience with any responsibility for the acquisition of a 
single foot of slave territory. He had never been an Abo- 
litionist ; he had always been willing to give to the old 
slave states all that the constitution had secured to them, 
and trusted, like Clay, to time and the decent opinions of 
mankind to lead up to gradual emancipation by the states 
or by the nation sanctioned by the states ; but when it 
came to enlarging the area of the evil, Mr. Hale revolted, 
and always remained a rebel. When Hale revolted, among 
the few writers that blessed him for his moral courage was 
the poet Whittier, who wrote : 

"God bless New Hampshire ; from her granite peaks 
Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks." 

From this time forward Mr. Hale's voice was heard pro- 
testing against the sale of slaves under Federal law in the 
District of Columbia ; against flogging in the navy ; against 
the enslavement or degradation of either the bodies or the 
souls of human beings of any race, color, or condition. Mr. 
Hale's day of triumph came at last. He led the forlorn 
hope of the Free Soil National party in 1852 ; he was 
elected three times to the United States senate, and was 
United States minister to Spain. He died, full of years 
and honors, surrounded by troops of friends who venerated 
him for the noble object lesson of moral courage in political 
life that his career had furnished. 

The glory of Mr. Hale is that he was an anti-slavery man 
when the courage of his convictions stood for the complete 
sacrifice of all the earnings of a brilliant political past in 
the ranks of a party that had always honored him and was 
ready to give him further honor, but 



220 THE HALE STATUE. 

" He scorned their gifts of fame, and power, and gold. 
And humbly joined him to the weaker part, 
Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content 
So he could be the neai'er to Cod's heart. 
And feel its solemn pulses sending blood 
Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good." 



[From The Bee, Omaha, Neb., August 7, 1892.] 

Less than forty years ago the name of John P. Hale was 
on the lips of every American, for his fiery denunciation of 
his party in its annexation of Texas, and subserviency to the 
growing slave party by the repeal of the Missouri compro- 
mise. He was one of the greatest anti-slavery agitators in 
the history of America, but his memory has almost passed 
away. Last week a statue of this man was presented to 
the state of New Hampshire by Senator Chandler, and the 
celebration of that event will serve to awaken in the minds 
of men a knowledge of one of the really courageous men of 
American history. 



[From the Manchester (N. H.) Mirror and American.'] 

John P. Hale was not a military hero. He was not a 
matchless orator. He was not a great statesman. But in 
the long list of the illustrious sons of New Hampshire there 
is scarcely another name which shines with greater or more 
enduring lustre than his. He was a strong, well-balanced 
man, of sublime courage, of thorough honest}^, of unwaver- 
ing faith, and of unfailing sagacity. He was one of the 
few who instinctively go to the front when truth needs a 
champion and righteousness a defender, whose leadership is 
gladly accepted because they inspire faith in their sincerity 
and confidence in their capacity, and who lead so steadily 
and successfully that they command the respect and admira- 
tion even of their opponents. 

Mr. Hale was born in Rochester, March 31, 1806 ; was 



APPENDIX. 221 

educated at Bowdoin college with the class of 1827, and 
read law in Dover, where he began the practice of his pro- 
fession in 1830. He grew to manhood under Democratic 
teachings, and upon reaching his majority was identified 
with the Democratic party, which promptly recognized his 
ability and responded to his desire for political preferment. 
In 1832 he represented Dover in the state legislature ; two 
years afterwards he was appointed United States district 
attorney, and in 1843, when thirty-seven years of age, he 
was elected to congress. He served one term, and was re- 
nominated ; but before the canvass opened he took occasion 
to repudiate the party doctrine upon the slavery question, 
and a second Democratic convention was called, which 
denounced him as a traitor and nominated another man in 
his stead. He then announced himself as an Independent 
candidate, and appealed to the people of his district to elect 
him as a Free Soil Democrat. He received more than 
3,000 votes, but was defeated. The next year Dover 
returned him to the house of representatives at Concord, in 
which the Whigs and Free Soilers outnumbered the reg- 
ular Democrats. A combination of these parties resulted 
in making hira speaker, and later on electing him United 
States senator, while the Whig candidate for governor, 
Anthony Colby, was elected, there having been no choice 
by the people. 

At the end of his first term in the senate, the Democrats 
controlled the legislature, and he was retired; but in 1855 
he was again elected to fill an unexpired term, and served 
until 1865, when President Lincoln appointed him minister 
to Spain. In 1869 he returned, with his health much im- 
paired, and died Nov. 18, 1873. In 1852 he was the can- 
didate of the Free Soil party for president. 

When Mr. Hale severed his connection with the Dem- 
ocratic party, it was at the height of its power in the state 
and nation, and only the eye of faith could see any pros- 
pect that its grasp would be broken, while the Free Soilers 
were so few and feeble that neither Democrats nor Whigs 



222 THE HALE STATUE. 

regarded them with anything but contempt. In 1841, of a 
total vote of 51,689 in New Hampshire, the Democrats 
cast 29,116, the Whigs 21,230, and the Free Soilers but 
1,273, and four j^ears later the Free Soil ticket received less 
than 6,000. 

To all appearances, a man like John P. Hale had but to 
stay with the Democratic party to reach any post of honor 
to which he might aspire, while to leave it and defy it was 
to invite defeat and humiliation through life. But he 
neither stayed nor stopped. As soon as it became apparent 
that the party with which he was allied, and of wliich he 
was a leader, was to become the agent of the slave power 
and be used to support the South in its aggressions, as soon 
as he saw that Democracy was going wrong deliberately, 
persistently, and hopelessly, he left it, and, without count- 
ing cost or considering consequences, cast his lot with the 
despised Free Soilers, and from that time on, through all 
the struggles of the party of freedom, he was one of the 
bravest of its captains, one of the wisest of its counsellors, 
one of the stanchest and strongest of its supporters. 

For more than twenty years he stood for the awakened 
conscience, the emancipated judgment, the love of liberty, 
and the loyalty to right of the people of New Hampshire 
and of the entire North, for his fame was as wide as the 
continent, and his followers were wherever freedom had a 
friend. At every turn the slaveholders and their northern 
allies found him equipped, fearless, and ready for combat. 
Defeat, and there was little but defeat for the anti-slavery 
cause for two decades, only nerved him to new endeavors, 
and success always inspired him to new advances. He 
never retreated, never parleyed, never compromised. At 
all times, in all places, he dared fight for the right, and he 
fought as stoutly when the odds were overwhelmingly 
against him as when the advantage was in his favor. In 
this, in his moral courage, was the graudeur of his cliar- 
acter, and in this respect he had few peers among the pub- 
lic men of his time. A state honors itself when it does 



APPENDIX. 223 

homage to tlie memory of such a man as John P. Hale, and 
New Hampshire may well congratulate herself that, through 
the generosity of William E. Chandler, a successor in the 
senate, she is given an opportunity to testify now and in all 
the coming time her admiration for the character, and her 
appreciation of the services, of John P. Hale, the gifted, 
gallant, and unswerving champion of freedom. 



[From the Manchester (N. PI.) Union, August 3, 1892.] 

It is fift^^-three years since John P. Hale took the unex- 
pected step which separated him from his former political 
associates, turned politics in New Hampshire topsy-turvy, 
and led, by a much shorter path than he could have fore- 
seen, to the United States senate. Half a century is a long 
time in the history of party politics. In that time the 
actors of a given period pass from the scene. Of the lead- 
ers in New Hampshire politics who were surprised, dis- 
appointed, maddened, or encouraged by Hale's independent 
course in 1845, not one remains. Those who blamed and 
those who praised have alike passed away, and the issues of 
that time have passed with them. Much of intensity, per- 
haps something of bitterness, in politics still remain, and must 
remain so long as men differ and parties struggle for the 
mastery; but such opposition as Hale met from the Demo- 
cratic party of his day, and such misrepresentation and con- 
tumely as honorable and conscientious Democrats suffered in 
their turn a few years later, are, it is hoped, buried forever 
with the dead past. Hale's special greatness lies in the fact 
that he stood by his convictions when, for all that he or any 
one else could see, it meant the blasting of what promised to 
be a brilliant future. In this respect he differed widely from 
others who afterwards attained to equal prominence and 
were more abundantly rewarded, but who waited before 
casting their lot with the new movement until they were 
sure that the party that grew from it had control of the 



224 THE HALE STATUE. 

loaves and fishes. He was not the earliest opponent of 
negro slavery ; but it was his fortune, through an unex- 
pected turn in the political tide, to be the first Free Soiler 
in the United States senate, and as such he stood for some 
time alone, conspicuous, by reason of his unique position no 
less than by his acknowledged ability, over all others who 
sat in that body with him. It is fitting that the statue of 
so distinguished a son of New Hampshire should stand in 
the park that surrounds its capitol, and it is to be hoped 
that fair skies will smile auspiciously upon the ceremony of 
unveiling. 



[From the Manchester (N. H.) Press, August 3, 1892.] 

The dedication to-day at Concord, in the state house yard, 
of a statue to John P. Hale recalls a political history in 
New Hampshire that is unique and inspiring. Of the 
period when John P. Hale flourished it may be well said, 
'' There were giants in those days," and among the giants 
John P. Hale stood among the foremost. 

Senator Hale was the pioneer senator who represented 
that class of Democrats on whom the light, showing in its 
true colors the deep damnation of the system of human 
slavery in this country, fell with convincing power. As the 
first anti-slavery United States senator, battling with his for- 
mer associates in the Democratic party, and leading the scat- 
tered elements of opposition to the national disgrace for 
many years. Hale was at once the national centre of anti- 
slavery sentiment and in his state the champion of an 
awakened public conscience. 

His senatorial career, reflecting the success or failure of 
his combats at home, presents as much of the romantic and 
the inspiring as ever characterized the days of chivalry in 
other fields. John P. Hale was a warrior, fully armed at 
all points, and fighting valorously the battle for human 
rights. No sentiment more inspiring than that uttered in 
the Old North church at Concord by him when the world, 



APPENDIX. 225 

the flesli, and the Hunker Democracy were uniting for his 
defeat, which looked inevitable, was ever uttered in New 
Hampshire, and it is worthily chiselled on his monument: 

" I wish no other epitaph than this : Here lies one who surrendered 
office, place, and pov\er rather than bow down and worship slavery." 

Nor is his anti-slavery record alone to be remembered, for 
the efforts of Senator Hale secured the abolition of flogging 
in the navy and of the ration of grog. 



[From the Concord (N. H.) Monitor, August 4, 1892.] 

It was emphatically a " Free Soil, Free Speech, and Free 
Men " day Wednesday. The dedication of the statue of 
John P. Hale called together such an assemblage as will 
never be witnessed again in New Hampshire. Survivors of 
the Old Guard who rallied around John P. Hale when he 
wrote his famous letter to his constituents in the oj)ening 
days of 1845, concerning the annexation of Texas, came 
from the hillsides and the valleys to do honor to his name 
and fame. Men in the active walks of life, whose enthu- 
siasm was stirred in their early years by the bugle blasts 
for freedom blown throughout our New Hampshire hills by 
John P. Hale, were present in force. Young men, whose 
knowledge of Mr. Hale was learned from the lips of their 
fathers and the study of the political history of our state 
through one of its most eventful periods, were also 23resent 
to catch the inspiration of the hour. Women, too, who 
extended their sympathy to the great leader in the hour of 
his need, and who have an instinctive love for courageous 
and conscientious men in the great battle of right against 
wrong, were present in great numbers to listen to the 
lengthened exercises of the occasion. All in all, it was a 
notable gathering, and a spontaneous tribute to the memory 
of one of New Hampshire's most distinguished sons. 
15 



226 THE HALE STATUE. 

[From The News-Letter, Exeter, N. IL, August 5, 1892.] 

Senator Chandler's monument to his father-in-law, the 
late Senator John P. Hale, was formally dedicated in the 
state house yard on Wednesday. The statue was modelled 
and cast in Munich at the foundry of F. von IMiller, who 
first gained reputation in this country by his admirable 
design for the Tyler Davidson fountain of Cincinnati. His 
film later cast the Webster statue which is near that of 
Hale on the state house grounds. Mr. Hale is represented 
as speaking, holding in his left hand a roll of manuscript, 
while the right is raised in gesticuhition. The head is in- 
clined slightly to the left, with the face nearly in front. 
The expression is majestic, and the dress is copied from the 
clothes lie actually wore when in the senate. 

Mr. Hale was brilliant from his boyhood. He studied 
law, and practiced it in Dover for many years. He was 
always more of a politician than legal student, however, and 
was soon prominent in the legislature. He was then an 
orthodox Democrat. In 1843 he was elected to congress, 
and was faithful to party interests, until it was proposed to 
admit Texas as a slave state, in all probability to be cut up 
into two or three more states, and so balance the growing- 
strength of the free North. 

His first step was to propose that only a part of Texas 
should be devoted to slavery. For this he was reprimanded 
by his legislature, and virtually ordered to advocate unqual- 
ified admission. This he refused to do. Then his party 
managers nominated in opposition John Woodbury, a native 
of Salem, but a resident of Exeter, where he had served as 
register of deeds. Mr. Woodbury, who lived in the Shute 
house on Court street, was a well intentioned but mentally 
narrow man. In those days, a majority, not a plurality, 
vote for congressman, as now, was required, and there was 
no choice. Mr. Woodbury gave up the contest and 
returned to Salem. There was a second unsuccessful trial, 
a,nd it was in the congress preceding election, that Mr. 



APPENDIX. 227 

Hale, in a speecli at Concoid, uttered the remarkable words 
quoted on his monument. 

His example proved contagious, and New Hampshire had 
henceforth a Free Soil party, mainly recruited from the 
Democracy. Some of the most important movements of 
the new departure occurred in Exeter. The old Whigs, 
hitherto in a hopeless minority, joined with the seceders, 
and as a result carried the legislature. In 1846, Mr. Hale 
was elected to the United States senate. In 1848 he 
declined a nomination to the presidency in favor of Martin 
Van Buren, the third party candidate. In 1852 he ran for 
that office, receiving nearly 156,000 votes. 

For a number of years he was the only Free Soil member 
of congress, and was constantly in a hopeless opposition. 
Yet he scored many an important point, and was popular 
with Southern members, both from their conviction of his 
honesty and fiom his ready wit. He had the rare art of 
saying unpleasant things without losing his temper, or 
arousing that of his hearers. He was not reelected at the 
close of his first term, but the Know-Nothing triumph gave 
him a new chance, and he filled the unexpired term of 
Charles G. Atherton, deceased. At the close of this he was 
elected for another full term, expiring in 1865. He was 
then sent as minister to Spain, where lie remained five years. 
His main work was performed in congress, and his health 
was now breaking. He returned home, to die on the 19th 
of November, 1873, at the age of sixty years. He gave 
reputation both to his state and the nation, and was one of 
the most effective pioneers in the cause of freedom. No 
man better deserved a statue. 



[From the Nashua (X. H.) Telegraph, August 3, 1892.] 

No more fitting statue could adorn the grounds of the 
state house at Concord than that of John Parker Hale. 
Above all things it stands for a man. " He was a man, 



228 THE HALE STATUE. 

take him all in all." Among the founders of the Free Soil 
party Mi'. Hale was first to attain a high civil position. 
How he reached that position constitutes one of the most 
interesting and instructive episodes in the politics of this 
country. The son of a lawyer, educated at Exeter and 
Bowdoin, and choosing the law himself for a profession, his 
humor, eloquence, and ability opened the way to immediate 
success. At twenty-six, he was elected to the legislature; 
at twenty-eight, he was appointed United States district 
attorney of New Hampshire ; at thirty-seven he was elected 
a representative in congress, and at forty he was chosen 
United States senator, which position he held, altogether^ 
sixteen years, covering the most eventful period in this cen- 
tury in the history of the country. 

In his early career Mr. Hale was a member of the Demo- 
cratic party. It controlled absolutely the politics of the 
state. The path of preferment alone lay through its favor. 
He had tasted its sweets, and there was apparently no 
honor to which he could not aspire and reach. It was in 
this blaze of success that Mr. Hale, as a Democratic mem- 
ber of congress, was instructed by the legislature to vote 
for the annexation of Texas. John P. Hale now stood at 
the parting of the ways. To vote for the admission of 
Texas and the further extension of slavery was to secure 
his relations with the dominant party of his state and of 
the nation. To vote almost alone against annexation was 
to sever those relations, retire to private life, and become 
an object of derision and hati'ed among his old associates. 
Mr. Hale chose to give up everything rather than bow the 
knee to Baal. He was ostracised, both politically and 
socially. Long years after, when other events had crowded 
upon the country. President Pierce deliberately turned his 
back upon Senator Hale at a White House reception. 

Mr. Hale became the candidate of the Independent 
Democrats and Free Sellers for congress, but there was no 
choice; the same result followed a second and even a third 
election. 



APPENDIX. 229 

In 1846, Mr. Hale was elected a member of the legisla- 
ture from Dover. By a fusion of the Independent .Demo- 
crats, Free Soilers, and Whigs, he was elected speaker, and 
later, at the same session. United States senator for six 
years. The result electrified the anti-slavery element of 
the entire country, and until reinforced by Sumner, Chase, 
Seward, and Wade, he was the most conspicuous leader of 
the anti-slavery party in public life. In all this John P. 
Hale stood for principle against tlie hope of reward. His 
intrepid stand called forth many encomiums, but the best 
was the poem written by the poet Whittier. The original 
of this poem was placed in our possession last winter. Its 
re-publication now seems most opportune. 



[From Rochester, N. H., Mr. Hale's Birthplace. 
Proceedings of the City Government. Address 
OF Mayor Charles S. Whitehouse.] 

Gentlemen: On Wednesday, August 3d, at Concord, 
in the state house grounds, will be unveiled, and dedicated 
to the people of New Hampshire with appropriate cere- 
monies, a statue of John Parker Hale ; a native of Roches- 
ter, a learned lawyer, a profound statesman, a heroic defend- 
er of human liberty, and a man of national reputation. 

Born in Rochester, March 31st, 1806, within a "stone's 
throw " of whei"e we are sitting, educated in the common 
schools of this village and at Exeter academy, and gradu- 
ated at Bowdoin college in 1827, he studied law with Jere- 
miah H. Woodman of this town, and with Daniel M. 
Christie of Dover and began the profession of his life in 
the latter city, where he ever after lived. He was elected 
to the state legislature from Dover in 1832, when but 26 
years old. In 1843 he was elected to congress and served 
one term. In 1846 again elected to the state legislature 
from Dover, chosen speaker of the house, and by the same 
legislature elected a U. S. senator for a full term of six 



230 THE HALE STATUE. 

years. Again elected for an unexpired term of four years 
in 1855, and for a full term of six years in 1859. Nominat- 
ed as the Free Soil candidate for the presidency in 1847, but 
declined. Again nominated for the presidency by the Free 
Soil convention in 1852. At the close of his senatorial 
term in 1865, he was appointed minister to Spain, where he 
remained five years, much of the time in ill health, and 
died in Dover, November 19th, 1873. In the words of 
another distinguished son of Rochester, Hon. Jacob H. Ela, 
"bearing with him the blessings of millions who had been 
raised from the sorrow and degradation of human servitude, 
and of millions more, who had admired his unselfish fidelity 
to the cause he had espoused, and his unwavering integ- 
rity." 

Such in the briefest manner possible, I have named the 
dates and principal events in this distinguished man's career, 
who shed lustre and honor on the nation, the state, and his 
native town. But to speak of his high rank as a lawyer, 
his power with a jnry, his skill in handling witnesses, his 
"keen wit, burning indignation, and touching pathos," needs 
an abler tonsjue than mine. As a statesman loval to his 
convictions of right, undaunted when standing solitary and 
alone in the U. S. senate, fighting the encroachments of a 
domineering and arrogant slave oligarchy, unmindful of 
the threats and persuasions of his (at that time) political 
associates, thrusting aside the brilliant prospects that 
loomed up before him, looking with the faith of a prophet 
to the ultimate disenthrallment of a race from human servi- 
tude, he presents to this generation a figure heroic and 
grand, such as no othei' state in the Union can show, and 
one which the people of his native town can do homage to 
with commendable pride. 

On the 3d of August, his statue, the gift of his distin- 
guished son-in-law. Senator William E. Chandler, is to be 
publicly unveiled and formally dedicated to the people of 
New Hampshire, whom he loved so well and served so faith- 
full v. 



APPENDIX. 231 

It seems to me eminently fitting that the people of his 
native place through this council should take cognizance of 
this important event by some official action. 

In council July 19, 1892, the following resolutions 
were unanimously adopted : 

We, the representatives of the city of Rochester in coun- 
cil assembled, recognizing the national reputation of John 
Parker Hale, a native of this town, his labors in the cause 
of human liberty, his profound statesmanship and lofty 
standard of political citizenship, and appreciating the great 
honor conferred upon his native place, therefore 

Resolved, That the mayor and city clerk, with such of the 
council as may join, attend the public unveiling of his 
statue at the state house in the city of Concord, the 3d day 
of August, 1892. 



FERDINAND VON MILLER, JR. 

Ferdinand von Miller, Jr., the artist who designed the 
statue of John P. Hale, was born June, 1842, and early put 
to practical work. His father w^is Stieglmayr's successor as 
manager of the Royal Art foundry, and had, soon after 
assuming; charg-e and as the result of a fall, contracted a 
severe and dangerous lung trouble, and King Ludvvig I 
asked the sick man to provide a suitable successor to him- 
self in the management of the works as speedily as possible. 
Miller therefore put his two young sons, who had scarcely 
finished the public school, to work with the artisans. His 
condition having improved, he devoted more time to the 
theoretical education of his sons, and Ferdinand von Miller., 
Jr., entered the Royal Industrial institute (now the Royal 
Academy) at Berlin in 1856. Besides the study of the 
technical branches, he here received from Professor Kiss 
his first instructions in modelling. Returned to Munich, he 
entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts as a pupil, at the 
same time working part of the day as modeller and founder 
in the Royal Art foundry. His further education in the 



232 THE HALE STATUE. 

arts was attended to by Professor von Widemann at Mun- 
ich ; later lie studied under Professor Haenel in Dresden, in 
whose studio he worked. 

In 1863 he was sent to Paris, and the young artist found 
work in the bronze foundr}^ of Barbedienne, where he 
worked two years. Afterwards he studied the systems of 
the bronze foundries in London, Vienna, and Florence, and 
at last finished his art studies during a long stay at Rome. 
In 18GG, at the breaking out of the war. Miller joined the 
army as a volunteer and did not return to his art until after 
the conclusion of peace. And when the great struggle with 
France called the German people to arms, he would not 
remain at home, and voluntarily exchanged the tools of the 
artist for the sword, and served during a large part of the 
campaign as lieutenant in the Fifth regiment of chevaux- 
legei's. From Paris, where his regiment had participated 
in the siege, he returned to the workshop. 

Soon after, while erecting the large fountain at Cincin- 
nati, he had occasion to witness the enthusiasm over the 
great German victories then prevailing among his country- 
men in America. 

While on an interesting tour through the West to San 
Francisco, Miller stopped at the Rocky mountains to study 
some Indian settlements. Here he learned to know the 
habits and modes of life of these people, and wrote inter- 
esting descriptions of them to his home. The life-size 
figure of an Indian dischai'ging his arrow ma}' be considered 
the result of his observations on this occasion. 

The people of Munich have learned to know Ferdinand 
von Miller, Jr., outside of his art work, as president of the 
successful seventh meet of the German Rifle league, the 
ceremonies on which occasion bore a decided artistic char- 
acter ; also as president of the Munich Artists' league, in 
which capacity he directed the international art exhibition. 
Elected to the city council, he was chosen second chairman. 

Especially important among the more recent productions 
of Von Miller by reason of the persons represented thereby. 



APPENDIX. 233 

are the statue of King Ludwig I, placed in the Walballa, 
and the equestrian statue of Emperor William I, erected at 
Metz, which two commissions he secured in a prize contest 
against many prominent competitors. 

Of his former productions may be mentioned figures of 
Shakespeare, Humboldt, and Columbus, made for St. Louis 
in the United States, and which are widely known. He 
has modelled up to the present time thirty-one colossal mon- 
uments, and is now engaged in the work of modelling the 
large Wairior mduument for Munich, the equestrian statue 
above mentioned of Emperor William, for the city of Metz, 
a colossal statue of Emperor William for the city of Trier, 
and another monument for Mittenwald. 

The honorary distinctions awarded to him personally are 
many. He has the large gold medal of Bavaria for art, the 
silver medal of the Munich exposition of 1873, the first 
medal awarded at the exhibition of art in Vienna, the gold 
medal of Melbourne, and the first medal awarded at Sidney. 

He is an honorary member of the academy of fine arts of 
Munich, but has refused to accept any honorary title offered 
to him. 

Of decorations, he has the Cross, with Star, of a Great 
Commander of the Spanish Order of Isabella, the Com- 
mander's Cross of the Danish Danebrog Order, the Com- 
mander's Cross of the Italian Crown Order, the Knight's 
Cross of the Bavarian Crown Order, the Knight's Cross of 
the first class of the Bavarian Michael Order, the Knight's 
Cross of the third class of the Prussian Crown Order, the 
Knight's (]ross of the first class of the Swedish Vasa Order, 
the Knight's Cross of the first class of the Wurtemburg 
Fredericks Order, and the war medals of the Austria-Prus- 
sian War, 1886, and the Franco-German War of 1870-'71. 



234 THE HALE STATUE. 

THE MUNICH ROYAL ART BRONZE FOUNDRY. 

Statement of the monuments cast at the Royal Art 
bronze foundry at Munich in Bavaria, omitting single 
statues. 

There have been made forty-five large monuments for 
North and South America, comprising eighty-four figures 
all told. Among these are three equestrian statues like 
that of General Washington in Richmond, for which rider 
and horse are twenty-four feet in height. They have also 
furnished seven large fountains, among which are those at 
Cincinnati, the Central park in New York, and one at Phil- 
adelphia. 

For the diffei'ent states of Europe there have been com- 
pleted in their works 220 colossal monuments with a total 
of 350 figures. This includes seventeen colossal equestrian 
statues and twenty-three fountains, also the largest monu- 
ments of the world that have ever been cast in bronze, The 
"Bavaria" of Munich and the " (xermania " on the "• Nie- 
derwald." 

At all exhibitions where their statuary foundry exhib- 
ited, it always received honorable distinction by being 
awarded the first medal ; at London, 1851, the large gold 
medal, in Municli on each and every exhibition the first 
medal, and the same distinction in Vienna and Berlin. 

The statue of Lincoln at Washington, with a negro 
kneeling at his feet with broken shackles, was cast at 
Munich ; also the Daniel Webster in the state house yard 
at Concord. 



APPENDIX. 



235 



JOHN PARKER HALE. 

[Concord Monitor, December 16, 1887.] 

This first distinctively anti-slavery United States senator 
was born in Rochester, N. H., March 31, 1806, and died 
in Dover, N. H., November 19, 1873. His father was John 
Parker Hale, a lawyer in Rochester. He was educated at 
Phillips Exeter academy, and graduated at Bowdoin college 
in 1827, Franklin Pierce being a college associate. He 
studied law with Jeremiah H. Woodman, of Rochester, and 
Daniel M. Christie, of Dover, and was admitted to the 
Strafford county bar, August 20, 1830, and commenced 
practice in Dover. 

In March, 1832, he was elected to the state house of rep- 
resentatives, and took his seat June 6, and again November 
22, at the extra session. Franklin Pierce, then twenty- 
eight years old, was speaker. On March 22, 1834, he was 
appointed U. S. district attorney by President Jackson^ 
was reappointed April 5, 1838, by President Van Buren, 
and removed for political reasons by President Tyler, June 
17, 1841. Joel Eastman was appointed to succeed him. 

On March 8, 1842, he was elected representative in the 
Twenty-eighth congress, and took his seat December 4, 
1843. He opposed the twenty-first rule, suppressing anti- 
slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the 
presidential canvass of 1844, and was renominated on a gen- 
eral ticket with three associates. The N. H. legislature, 
December 28, 1844, passed resolutions instructing their 
representatives to support the annexation of Texas, and 
President Tyler, in his annual message of that year, advo- 
cated annexation. On January 7, 1845, Mr. Hale wrote 
his noted Texas letter to ''The Democratic Republican 
electors" of New Hampsliire, which may be found pub- 
lished in the first number, dated May 1, 1845, of the Inde- 
pendent Democrat, started at Manchester by Robert C> 
Wetmore. 



236 THE HALE STATUE. 

The letter is dated at the House of Representatives, 
Wasliington. He says he cannot support the annexation of 
Texas, and that the reasons alleged by the administration 
justifying it are "eminently calculated to provoke the scorn 
of earth and the judgment of heaven ; and I cannot consent 
by any agency of mine to aid in placing our beloved country 
in such an attitudi^. When our forefathers bade a last fare- 
well to the homes of their childhood, the graves of their 
fathers, and the temples of their God, and ventured upon 
all the desperate contingencies of wintry seas and a savage 
coast, that tliey might in strong faith and ardent hope lay 
deep the foundations of the temple of liberty, their faith 
would have become scepticism, and their hopes despair, 
■could they have foreseen that the day would ever arrive 
when their degenerate sons would be found seeking to 
extend their boundaries and their government, not for the 
purpose of promoting freedom, but sustaining slavery.'" 

The state convention of his party reassembled at Concord, 
February 12, 1845, and, under the lead of Franklin Pierce, 
struck Hale's name from the ticket for representatives in 
congress, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. 
Hale was suppoited as an Independent candidate. On 
March 1, 1845. iMr. Hale and one other Democrat, R. D. 
Davis, of New York, voted with the Whigs against the 
joint resolution which passed congress admitting Texas to 
the Union. 

On March 11,1845, the election took place: 23,141 votes 
were necessary to a choice. The highest of the three Dem- 
ocratic candidates who were elected had 24,904 votes; the 
highest Whig candidate had 15,177. Woodbury had 22,314, 
Joseph Cilley had 4,827, and Mr. Hale had 7,788. On the 
second trial, September 23, 1845. Ichabod Goodwin, Whig, 
had 10,055, Woodbury, 17,936, and Hale, 8,355. On the 
third trial, November 29, Goodwin had 12,187 ; Woodbury, 
19,916 ; Hale, 9,766. On the fourth trial, at the annual 
■election, March 10, 1846, Goodwin had 16,617, Woodbury, 
26,806, and Hale, 11,475. 



APPENDIX. 23T 

During these repeated trials Mr. Hale thoroughly can- 
vassed the state. At his North church meeting in Concord, 
June 5, 1845, General Pierce and other Democrats attended^ 
and after Mr. Hale closed his ini}3assioned speech with the 
words, "• People change, public opinion changes, and parties 
change ; but the principles of justice, moral obligations, and 
the God who sits upon the throne of the universe, never 
change," General Pierce, being called for, replied with 
vehemence and bitterness. Mr. Hale rejoined as follows : 

"As I expected, and as I anticipated in my former 
remarks, it is all ' Abolitionism and Whiggery.' I expected 
to be called ambitious, and to have my name cast out as evil ; 
to be traduced and misi'epresented, and have not been dis- 
appointed. If conscience and her voice are to be publicly 
held up to ridicule and scouted at with impunity, as has just 
been done here, it matters but little whether we are an- 
nexed to Texas or Texas annexed to us. In conclusion I 
may be permitted to say that the measure of my ambition 
will be full if I may feel that when my earthly career shall 
be finished and my bones be laid in the grave under the 
soil of New Hampshire, and my wife and my children shall 
repaii- thither to drop the tear of affection to my memory, 
they may read on my tomb-stone that he who lies beneath 
surrendered office, place, and power rather than bow down 
and Avorship slavery." 

The growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the state was so 
great and rapid that at the above election of March 10, 
1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats not only 
again defeated a choice of representatives in congress, but 
also pievented any election of governor, and elected a 
majority of the state legislature. The total vote was 
55,194 ; necessary to a choice, 27,5'J8 ; scattering, 3()8. 
Nathaniel S. Berry (Free Soil) had 10,379; Anthony 
Colby (Whig), 17,707; Jared W. Williams (Democrat),. 
26,740. 

The result of this election in 1846 gave great courage to 
the friends of freedom throughout the country. In The 



238 ■ THE HALE STATUE. 

Jti<hpen(^ent Democrat of March 26, 1846, is a letter from 
John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Mass., 3d mo., 18th, 
1846, in which he says of Mr. Hale : 

He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has 
hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The 
tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of 
party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is rushing down from 
your noT'thern mountains upon the slave-cursed South, as if Niagara 
stretched its foam and thunder the whole length of Mason & Dixon's 
line. Let the first wavp. of that northern jlond, as it dashes against the 
walls of the Capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti-slavery senator. 

When the legislature met June 3, 1846, Mr. Plale was 
elected speaker, receiving 139 votes; Samuel Swasey, 118; 
scattering;, three. In his address he invoked "that immortal 
sentiment which the wisdom of our fathers placed as the 
corner stone of our constitution, that all men are created 
equally free and independent." On June 5, Anthony Colby 
was elected governor, receiving 146 votes, and Jared W. 
Williams, 125. On June 9, Mr. Hale was elected United 
States senator for the six years to commence March 3, 1847, 
receiving in the house 139 votes against 122 for all others, 
and in the senate eight against foui' for others. On June 
12, Joseph Cilley was elected to fill the existing vacancy, 
created by the resignation of Levi Woodbury to become an 
associate justice of the United States supreme court, and 
Ml'. Cilley took his seat as senator June 22. 

From his election as United States senator in 1846, to the 
close of his last term in 1865, Mr. Hale was a prominent 
Free Soil and Republican leader. On October 20, 1847, he 
was nominated for president by a National Liberty conven- 
tion at Buffalo, with Leicester King of Ohio for vice-presi- 
dent, but declined the nomination and supported Mr. Van 
Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo convention of 
August 9, 1848, by a majority of 22, Mr. Hale receiving 
180 votes. 

On December 6, 1847, he took his seat in the senate, which 
contained 32 Democrats and 21 Whigs. An attempt being 



APPENDIX. 239 

made to class him as Whig, he repelled the classification, 
was excused by a vote of 17 to 16 from serving on commit- 
tees, and he remained the only Free Soil senator until 
joined by Salmon P. Chase on December 3, 1849, and by 
Charles Sumner on December 1, 1851. Mr. Hale com- 
menced the agitation of the slavery question, in connection 
with the Mexican War, on January 6, 1848, and continued 
it in frequent speeches during his whole term. 

Shortly after his entrance into the senate he began the 
work of securing the abolition of flogging and the spirit 
ration in the navy. On July 19, 1848, he introduced a 
resolution relative to punishments on shipboard, and July 
21 moved an amendment to the naval appropriation bill 
abolishing flogging and the spirit ration; but only four sen- 
ators rose with him in the affirmative. On September 28, 
1850, however, he secured the adoption, on the appropria- 
tion for the naval service, of the following proviso: "That 
Hogging in the navy, and on board vessels of commerce, be 
and the same is hereby abolished from and after the pas- 
sage of this act." But it was not until July 14, 1862, that 
he accomplished the abolition of the spirit ration by a 
-clause as follows : " From and after the first day of Septem- 
ber, 1862, the spirit ration in the navy of the United States 
shall forever cease, and thereafter no distilled spirituous 
liquors shall be admitted on board vessels-of-war, except as 
medical stores, and upon the order and under the control of 
the medical officers of such vessels, and to be used only for 
medical purposes. From and after the said first day of Sep- 
tember next there shall be allowed and paid to each person 
in the navy now entitled to the spirit ration five cents per 
day in commutation and lieu thereof, which shall be in 
.addition to their present pay." 

In 1852 Mr. Hale was nominated at Pittsburgh, Pa., by 
the Free Soil party for president, with George W, Julian 
■as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. 

His first senatorial term ended March 4, 1853, on which 
►day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The sue- 



240 THE HALE STATUE. 

ceeding winter Mr. Hale commenced the practice of law ii> 
the city of New York. The repeal of the Missouri com- 
promise measures, however, again overthrew the Dem- 
ocrats of New Hampshire. They failed to elect United 
States senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in 
March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On June 13, 
1855, James Bell, Whig, was elected United States senator 
for six years from March 3, 1855, and Mr. Hale was elected 
by 218 votes against 10 L for all othei's for the four years of 
the unexpired term of Charles G. Atherton, who had suc- 
ceeded him and died in office. On June 9, 1858, he was 
reelected for a full term of six years, to end March 4, 1865. 
On March 10, 1865, he was confirmed and commissioned 
minister to Spain, and went immediately to that court. He- 
was recalled April 5, 1869, and took leave July 29, 1869. 

The above statement of dates and statistics connected 
with Mr. Hale's life was prepared for Appleton's Cyclo- 
ptedia of Biography, and is here printed as likely to be 
interesting to many readers. A most striking fact is the- 
constant contact of Mr. Hale's life with that of Franklin 
Pierce. They were together at Bowdoin college. In 1832 
both were in the legislature. Hale being twenty-six years 
old, and Pierce twenty-eight and speaker. In 1833 Pierce 
entered the national house of representatives, continued 
there four years, was elected in 1837 to the senate, and 
remained until March 1. 1842. In 1834 Hale became- 
United States district attorney, and held the office until 
1841, and was elected representative in congress in 1842, 
entering the house shortly after Pierce left the senate. 
Up to 1845 they associated and agreed in politics as Jack- 
son Democrats, and together in 1844 they stumped New 
Hampshire for Polk and Dallas. But wdien in 1845 Hale 
left the Demociacy on the Texas issue, Pierce became his 
opponent, and dictated his decapitation as a candidate for 
reelection to the house, at the convention of February 12,, 
1845. From that time their lives were antagonistic. In. 
1846 Hale went to the senate, and in 1852 was the Free 



APPENDIX. 241 

Soil candidate for president with a view to defeating Pierce. 
In 1853, as Hale left the senate, Pierce entered the White 
House as president, having also forced the nomination and 
election of Cliarles G. Atherton as senator in Hale's place. 
But in 1855, before Pierce's term as president had ex[)ired. 
Hale, as the successor of Atherton, who had died, again 
appeared in his former place in the senate to assail the 
administration of his old friend. 

The political separation of these former associates was 
signalized by their famous North Church debate June 5, 
1845. In this discussion Pierce bitterly complained that 
Hale had concealed his sentiments on Texas annexation 
while upon the stump in the presi-dential canvass of 1844, 
to which complaint Hale's reply was that not until after 
Polk had been elected was the purpose avowed of bringing 
Texas into the Union as a slave state. The parallel careers 
of these two distinguished sons of New Hampshire, both 
orators of graceful and fervid eloquence, who gave their 
lives, one to the service of slavery and the other to the 
advocacy of freedom, one of whom became a pro-slavery 
president, and the other an anti-slavery senatoi-, are an 
interesting study for the young men of their native state. 

W. E. C. 



o 



(b 



Rd 



1 07 



INDEX. 



Letter of Donation, Description of Statue, Names of Persons 
attending the Unveiling, 

UNVEILING CEREMONIES. 

Address : 

Councillor Ramsdell, Chairman, ..... 

Unveiling : 

John Parker Hale Chandler, 

Addresses : 

Presentation, Senator Chandler, ..... 
Acceptance, Governor Tuttle, 

Oration : 

Daniel Hall, ........ 

Addresses : 

Galusha A. Grow, 
George S. Boutvvell, 
Frederick Douglass, 
Augustus Woodbury, 
Amos Hadley, 
Alonzo H. Quint, . 
John W. Hutchinson, 



9 
13 

13 

18 

21 

109 
112 
116 
124 
131 
139 
145 



APPENDIX. 

Letters, Interviews, and Comments 
Jolm G. Whittier, 
Frederick Douglass, 
Nathaniel S. Berry, 
A. P. Putnam, 
Larkin D. Mason, 
Chester B. Jordan, 
Caleb A. Wall, . 



151 
152 
152 
154 
157 
159 
159 



244 



INDEX. 



Letters, Interviews, and Comments : 

John D. Lyman, . 

Sylvester Dana, . 

Heniy P. Rolfe, . 

Parker Pillsbnry, . 

Thomas W. Brown, funeral services, 

Augusta (Me.) Journal, 

Camden (Me.) Herald, 

Portland (Me.) Press, . 

Boston Advertiser, by F. B. 8anl)orn, 

Worcester Spy, 

Haverhill (Mass) Bulletin, 

Boston Traveller, . 

Boston Journal, 

Boston Herald, 

Boston News, 

Hartford Courant. 

New York Times, 

Brooklyn Eagle, . 

Utica Herald, 

New York Tribune, 

New York Press, . 

Syracuse Journal, 

Philadelphia Press, 

Portland (Oregon) Oregonian, 

Seattle (Wash.) Post-Intelligen 

Omaha Bee, 

Manchester Mirror, 

Manchester Union, 

Manchester Press, 

Concord Monitor, 

Exeter News-Letter, 

Nashua Telegraph, 

Charles S. AYhitehouse, 
Biographical and Descriptive : 

Ferdinand von Miller, Jr., 

The Munich Royal Art Bronze Foundry 

John Parker Hale, by Wm. E. Chandler, 



161 

164 

167 

172 

177 

193 

194 

196 

197 

200 

201 

203 

204 

205 

206 

206 

207 

210 

211 

211 

212 

212 

213 

215 

217 

220 

220 

223 

224 

225 

226 

227 

229 

231 
234 
235 






^^r^ 



'^^ 















X^ -71 



^'^^ 



'^^ " " " - O 






c^\-^:<.X /.'^^^.X ,^\-ii^<-^. /,>:^^-.\ . 



0* T'^' 









^r,^ . '^ 









.0' 









-^ A 



y 






%. '" '^^ <^ 



V^ 
-J.^' ^^> 



.^^ 



<^ 






^^ 



^0 



o V 









,0 






.4 o. 



' .^°'-*. 



^ ^ ^ V /^ »V 



c> ^'..s^ A <. 'o..* .0^ c> '"■■v.'.- A <. '^..^ 









c'^ 









A 



/ ... 






^ O. " '1.'/ (^;-. V)J' * ^3 ^.-v . 'x 












^ * n . o ' Os^ 













,0^ 



^o. 



'^ A 





















v''^ 






o. 























0% b » 












't. 



■0^ 






y 



^ 



V r ' * °- C» 




O c ° " ° 







Oiii BROS. ,0 O '■,.-. 

l*KY BINDING 'A v^. 

AUGUSTINE 



''^■■/r?? 






^o. 



,0- 



v^ 



^^^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGHtb:. 



011 897 148 



6 # 



